Francois de La Rochefoucauld

"The contempt of riches in philosophers was only a hidden desire to avenge their merit upon the injustice of fortune, by despising the very goods of which fortune had deprived them; it was a secret to guard themselves against the degradation of poverty, it was a back way by which to arrive at that distinction which they could not gain by riches."

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Source: Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims. Book by François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxim No. 60, 1665.

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Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

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Francois de La Rochefoucauld was a 17th-century French writer known for his insightful maxims on human nature and morality.

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"The passions are the only orators that always persuade: they are, as it were, a natural art, the rules of which are infallible; and the simplest man with passion is more persuasive than the most eloquent without it."

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