Francois de La Rochefoucauld

"Virtue is the habit of acting according to wisdom. GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ, "Felicity", Leibniz: Political Writings Virtue is harder to be got than knowledge of the world; and, if lost in a young man, is seldom recovered. JOHN LOCKE, Some Thoughts Concerning Education However wicked men may be, they do not dare openly to appear the enemies of virtue, and when they desire to persecute her they either pretend to believe her false or attribute crimes to her."

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Source: Maximes. No. 451 (1665 - 1678). Translation by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell, 1871.

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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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