"Men never desire anything very eagerly which they desire only by the dictates of reason."
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Francois de La Rochefoucauld quotes (page 53 of 55)
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"When the soul is ruffled by the remains of one passion, it is more disposed to entertain a new one than when it is entirely curedand at rest from all."
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"Those great and glorious actions that dazzle our eyes with their luster are represented by statesmen as the result of great wisdomand excellent design; whereas, in truth, they are commonly the effects of the humors and passions."
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"We often see malefactors, when they are led to execution, put on resolution and a contempt of death which, in truth, is nothing else but fearing to look it in the face--so that this pretended bravery may very truly be said to do the same good office to their mind that the blindfold does to their eyes."
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"Very few people are acquainted with death. They undergo it, commonly, not so much out of resolution as custom and insensitivity; and most men die because they cannot help it."
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"Praise is a more ingenious, concealed, and subtle kind of flattery, that satisfies both the giver and the receiver, though by verydifferent ways. The one accepts it as a reward due to his merit; the other gives it that he may be looked upon as a just and discerning person."
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"That man, we may be sure, is a person of true worth, whom those who envy him most are yet forced to praise."
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"He that fancies such a sufficiency in himself that he can live without all the world is greatly mistaken; but he that imagines himself so necessary that other people cannot live without him is a great deal more mistaken."
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"Women can more easily conquer their passion than their coquetterie."
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"Our self-love can less bear to have our tastes than our opinions condemned."
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"Some follies are caught, like contagious diseases."
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"It is necessary, in order to know things well, to know the particulars of them; and these, being infinite, make our knowledge eversuperficial and imperfect."
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"Idleness and constancy fix the mind to what it finds easy and agreeable. This habit always confines and cramps up our knowledge; and no one has ever taken the trouble to stretch and carry his understanding as far as it could go."
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"We should desire very few things passionately if we did but perfectly know the nature of the things we desire."
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"The distempers of the soul have their relapses, as many and as dangerous as those of the body; and what we take for a perfect cureis generally either an abatement of the same disease or the changing of that for another."
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"We often credit ourselves with vices the reverse of what we have, thus when weak we boast of our obstinacy."
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"There are two sorts of constancy in love one arises from continually discovering in the loved person new subjects for love, the other arises from our making a merit of being constant."
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"Some people are like popular songs that you only sing for a short time."
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"The most subtle of our acts is to simulate blindness for snares that we know are set for us."
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"One kind of flirtation is to boast we never flirt."
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