François de La Rochefoucauld

We hardly find any persons of good sense save those who agree with us.

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld, le Prince de Marcillac (September 15 1613 – March 17 1680) was a noted French author of maxims and memoirs, as well as an example of the accomplished 17th-century nobleman.

Quotes

Reflections on Various Subjects (1665–1678)

See also Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims

I. On Confidence

• Though sincerity and confidence have many points of resemblance, they have yet many points of difference. Sincerity is an openness of heart, which shows us what we are, a love of truth, a dislike to deception, a wish to compensate our faults and to lessen them by the merit of confessing them.

• Confidence always pleases those who receive it. It is a tribute we pay to their merit, a deposit we commit to their trust, a pledge which gives them a claim upon us, a kind of dependence to which we voluntarily submit. I do not wish from what I have said to depreciate confidence, so necessary to man.

• We should make it a rule never to have half confidences. They always embarrass those who give them, and dissatisfy those who receive them. They shed an uncertain light on what we want hidden, increase curiosity, entitling the recipients to know more, giving them leave to consider themselves free to talk of what they have guessed. It is far safer and more honest to tell nothing than to be silent when we have begun to tell.

II. On Difference of Character

• Although all the qualities of mind may be united in a great genius, yet there are some which are special and peculiar to him; his views are unlimited; he always acts uniformly and with the same activity; he sees distant objects as if present; he comprehends and grasps the greatest, sees and notices the smallest matters; his thoughts are elevated, broad, just and intelligible. Nothing escapes his observation, and he often finds truth in spite of the obscurity that hides her from others. A lofty mind always thinks nobly, it easily creates vivid, agreeable, and natural fancies, places them in their best light, clothes them with all appropriate adornments, studies others' tastes, and clears away from its own thoughts all that is useless and disagreeable.

• Satire is at once the most agreeable and most dangerous of mental qualities. It always pleases when it is refined, but we always fear those who use it too much, yet satire should be allowed when unmixed with spite, and when the person satirised can join in the satire. It is unfortunate to have a satirical turn without affecting to be pleased or without loving to jest.

• Raillery is a kind of mirth which takes possession of the imagination, and shows every object in an absurd light; wit combines more or less softness or harshness.

• There is a difference between an ardent and a brilliant mind, a fiery spirit travels further and faster, while a brilliant mind is sparkling, attractive, accurate.

• Though the gifts of the mind are infinite, they can, it seems to me, be thus classified. There are some so beautiful that everyone can see and feel their beauty. There are some lovely, it is true, but which are wearisome. There are some which are lovely, which all the world admire, but without knowing why. There are some so refined and delicate that few are capable even of remarking all their beauties. There are others which, though imperfect, yet are produced with such skill, and sustained and managed with such sense and grace, that they even deserve to be admired.

III. On Taste

• The word taste has different meanings, which it is easy to mistake. There is a difference between the taste which in certain objects has an attraction for us, and the taste that makes us understand and distinguish the qualities we judge by.

• Some have a species of instinct (the source of which they are ignorant of), and decide all questions that come before them by its aid, and always decide rightly. These follow their taste more than their intelligence, because they do not permit their temper and self-love to prevail over their natural discernment. All they do is in harmony, all is in the same spirit. This harmony makes them decide correctly on matters, and form a correct estimate of their value. But speaking generally there are few who have a taste fixed and independent of that of their friends, they follow example and fashion which generally form the standard of taste.

V. On Conversation

• The reason why so few persons are agreeable in conversation is that each thinks more of what he desires to say, than of what the others say, and that we make bad listeners when we want to speak. Yet it is necessary to listen to those who talk, we should give them the time they want, and let them say even senseless things; never contradict or interrupt them; on the contrary, we should enter into their mind and taste, illustrate their meaning, praise anything they say that deserves praise, and let them see we praise more from our choice than from agreement with them. To please others we should talk on subjects they like and that interest them, avoid disputes upon indifferent matters, seldom ask questions, and never let them see that we pretend to be better informed than they are.

• We should never say anything with an air of authority, nor show any superiority of mind. We should avoid far-fetched expressions, expressions hard or forced, and never let the words be grander than the matter.

• We are sure to displease when we speak too long and too often of one subject, and when we try to turn the conversation upon subjects that we think more instructive than others, we should enter indifferently upon every subject that is agreeable to others, stopping where they wish, and avoiding all they do not agree with.

• We should observe the place, the occasion, the temper in which we find the person who listens to us, for if there is much art in speaking to the purpose, there is no less in knowing when to be silent. There is an eloquent silence which serves to approve or to condemn, there is a silence of discretion and of respect. In a word, there is a tone, an air, a manner, which renders everything in conversation agreeable or disagreeable, refined or vulgar.

VII. On Air and Manner

• There is an air which belongs to the figure and talents of each individual; we always lose it when we abandon it to assume another. We should try to find out what air is natural to us and never abandon it, but make it as perfect as we can. This is the reason that the majority of children please. It is because they are wrapt up in the air and manner nature has given them, and are ignorant of any other. They are changed and corrupted when they quit infancy, they think they should imitate what they see, and they are not altogether able to imitate it. In this imitation there is always something of falsity and uncertainty. They have nothing settled in their manner and opinions. Instead of being in reality what they want to appear, they seek to appear what they are not.

• All men want to be different, and to be greater than they are; they seek for an air other than their own, and a mind different from what they possess; they take their style and manner at chance. They make experiments upon themselves without considering that what suits one person will not suit everyone, that there is no universal rule for taste or manners, and that there are no good copies.

• Few men, nevertheless, can have unison in many matters without being a copy of each other, if each follow his natural turn of mind. But in general a person will not wholly follow it. He loves to imitate. We often imitate the same person without perceiving it, and we neglect our own good qualities for the good qualities of others, which generally do not suit us.

• But, yet acquired qualities should always have a certain agreement and a certain union with our own natural qualities, which they imperceptibly extend and increase.

• We should not speak of all subjects in one tone and in the same manner. We do not march at the head of a regiment as we walk on a promenade; and we should use the same style in which we should naturally speak of different things in the same way, with the same difference as we should walk, but always naturally, and as is suitable, either at the head of a regiment or on a promenade.=

• Thousands of people with good qualities are displeasing; thousands pleasing with far less abilities, and why? Because the first wish to appear to be what they are not, the second are what they appear. Some of the advantages or disadvantages that we have received from nature please in proportion as we know the air, the style, the manner, the sentiments that coincide with our condition and our appearance, and displease in the proportion they are removed from that point.

Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)

One must listen if one wishes to be listened to.

See also Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims

• Nos vertus ne sont, le plus souvent, que de vices déguisés.
  • Our virtues are most frequently but vices in disguise.
  • Epigraph. Note: "This epigraph, which is the key to the system of La Rochefoucauld, is found in another form as No. 179 of the Maxims of the first edition, 1665; it is omitted from the second and third, and reappears for the first time in the fourth edition at the head of the Reflections". Aime Martin, editor, Bartlett's Quotations, 1919 edition.

• Ce que nous prenons pour des vertus n'est souvent qu'un assemblage de diverses actions et de divers intérêts, que la fortune ou notre industrie savent arranger; et ce n'est pas toujours par valeur et par chasteté que les hommes sont vaillants, et que les femmes sont chastes.
  • What we term virtues are often but a mass of various actions and diverse interests, which fortune or our own industry manage to arrange; and it is not always from valour or from chastity that men are brave, and women chaste.
  • Maxim 1.

• L'amour-propre est le plus grand de tous les flatteurs.
  • Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers.
  • Maxim 2.

• La passion fait souvent un fou du plus habile homme, et rend souvent les plus sots habiles.
  • Passion often renders the most clever man a fool, and even sometimes renders the most foolish man clever.
  • Variant translation: Passion often makes a fool of the cleverest man and often makes the most foolish men clever.
  • Maxim 6.

• Les passions sont les seuls orateurs qui persuadent toujours. Elles sont comme un art de la nature dont les règles sont infaillibles; et l'homme le plus simple qui a de la passion persuade mieux que le plus éloquent qui n'en a point.
  • The passions are the only advocates which always persuade. They are a natural art, the rules of which are infallible; and the simplest man with passion will be more persuasive than the most eloquent without.
  • Variant translation: The passions are the only orators who always persuade. They are like a natural art, of which the rules are unfailing; and the simplest man who has passion will be more persuasive than the most eloquent man who has none.
  • Maxim 8.

• Il y a dans le coeur humain une génération perpétuelle de passions, en sorte que la ruine de l'une est presque toujours l'établissement d'une autre.
  • In the human heart there is a perpetual generation of passions, such that the ruin of one is almost always the foundation of another.
  • Maxim 10.

We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others.

• Nous avons tous assez de force pour supporter les maux d'autrui.
  • We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others.
  • Maxim 19.

• La philosophie triomphe aisément des maux passés et des maux à venir. Mais les maux présents triomphent d'elle.
  • Philosophy triumphs easily over past and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.
  • Maxim 22. Compare: "This same philosophy is a good horse in the stable, but an arrant jade on a journey", Oliver Goldsmith, The Good-Natured Man, Act i.

• Il faut de plus grandes vertus pour soutenir la bonne fortune que la mauvaise.
  • We need greater virtues to sustain good than evil fortune.
  • Maxim 25.

• Le soleil ni la mort ne se peuvent regarder fixement.
  • Neither the sun nor death can be looked at steadily.
  • Maxim 26. Sometimes incorrectly translated as "with a steady eye".

• Le mal que nous faisons ne nous attire pas tant de persécution et de haine que nos bonnes qualités.
  • The evil that we do does not attract to us so much persecution and hatred as our good qualities.
  • Maxim 29.

To succeed in the world we do everything we can to appear successful already.

• Si nous n'avions point de défauts, nous ne prendrions pas tant de plaisir à en remarquer dans les autres.
  • If we had no faults, we should not take so much pleasure in noting those of others.
  • Maxim 31.

• La jalousie se nourrit dans les doutes, et elle devient fureur, ou elle finit, sitôt qu'on passe du doute à la certitude.
  • Jealousy lives upon suspicion; and it turns into a fury or ends as soon as it passes from suspicion to certainty.
  • Maxim 32.

• Nous promettons selon nos espérances, et nous tenons selon nos craintes.
  • We promise according to our hopes; we fulfill according to our fears.
  • Maxim 38.

• L'intérêt parle toutes sortes de langues, et joue toutes sortes de personnages, même celui de désintéressé.
  • Self-interest speaks all sorts of tongues and plays all sorts of characters, even that of disinterestedness.
  • Maxim 39.

• Ceux qui s'appliquent trop aux petites choses deviennent ordinairement incapables des grandes.
  • Those who apply themselves too much to little things often become incapable of great ones.
  • Maxim 41.

• L'homme croit souvent se conduire lorsqu'il est conduit; et pendant que par son esprit il tend à un but, son coeur l'entraîne insensiblement à un autre.
  • A man will often believe himself a leader when he is led; while with his mind he endeavours to reach one goal, his heart insensibly drags him toward another.
  • Maxim 43.

• On n'est jamais si heureux ni si malheureux qu'on s'imagine.
  • One is never so happy or so unhappy as one fancies.
  • Maxim 49.

• Pour s'établir dans le monde, on fait tout ce que l'on peut pour y paraître établi.
  • To succeed in the world we do everything we can to appear successful already.
  • Maxim 56.

• Le bonheur et le malheur des hommes ne dépend pas moins de leur humeur que de la fortune.
  • The happiness and misery of men depend no less on temper than fortune.
  • Maxim 61.

• La sincérité est une ouverture de coeur. On la trouve en fort peu de gens; et celle que l'on voit d'ordinaire n'est qu'une fine dissimulation pour attirer la confiance des autres.
  • Sincerity is an openness of heart; we find it in very few people; what we usually see is only an artful dissimulation to win the confidence of others.
  • Maxim 62.

• La bonne grâce est au corps ce que le bon sens est à l'esprit.
  • What grace is to the body, good sense is to the mind.
  • Maxim 67.

• Il est difficile de définir l'amour. Dans l'âme c'est une passion de régner, dans les esprits c'est une sympathie, et dans le corps ce n'est qu'une envie cachée et délicate de posséder ce que l'on aime après beaucoup de mystères.
  • It is difficult to define love. In the soul it is a passion to rule; in the mind it is sympathy; and in the body it is only a hidden and tactful desire to possess what we love after many mysteries.
  • Maxim 68.

• Il n’y a point de déguisement qui puisse longtemps cacher l’amour où il est, ni le feindre où il n’est pas.
  • There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not.
  • Maxim 70.

• Il n'y a guère de gens qui ne soient honteux de s'être aimés, quand ils ne s'aiment plus.
  • There are very few people who are not ashamed to be loved when they no longer do.
  • Variant translation: There are very few people who are not ashamed to have loved when they no longer do.
  • Maxim 71.

• Si on juge de l'amour par la plupart de ses effets, il ressemble plus à la haine qu'à l'amitié.
  • If we judge love by the majority of its results, it resembles hatred more than friendship.
  • Maxim 72.

• On peut trouver des femmes qui n'ont jamais eu de galanterie; mais il est rare d'en trouver qui n'en aient jamais eu qu'une.
  • We may find women who have never indulged in an intrigue, but it is rare to find those who have intrigued but once.
  • Maxim 73.

• Il n'y a qu'une sorte d'amour, mais il y en a mille différentes copies.
  • There is only one kind of love, but there are a thousand different versions.
  • Maxim 74.

• L'amour aussi bien que le feu ne peut subsister sans un mouvement continuel; et il cesse de vivre dès qu'il cesse d'espérer ou de craindre.
  • Neither love nor fire can subsist without perpetual motion; both cease to live so soon as they cease to hope, or to fear.
  • Maxim 75.

• Il est du véritable amour comme de l'apparition des esprits: tout le monde en parle, mais peu de gens en ont vu.
  • True love is like the appearance of ghosts: everyone talks about it but few have seen it.
  • Variant translation: With true love it's like with the appearance of ghosts: everyone talks about it but few have seen it.
  • Maxim 76.

• L'amour de la justice n'est en la plupart des hommes que la crainte de souffrir l'injustice.
  • The love of justice is simply in the majority of men the fear of suffering injustice.
  • Maxim 78.

• Le silence est le parti le plus sûr de celui qui se défie de soi-même.
  • Silence is the surest resolve for him who distrusts himself.
  • Maxim 79.

• Ce que les hommes ont nommé amitié n'est qu'une société, qu'un ménagement réciproque d'intérêts, et qu'un échange de bons offices; ce n'est enfin qu'un commerce où l'amour-propre se propose toujours quelque chose à gagner.
  • Friendship is only a reciprocal conciliation of interests, and an exchange of good offices; it is a species of commerce out of which self-love always expects to gain something.
  • Maxim 83.

• Il est plus honteux de se défier de ses amis que d'en être trompé.
  • It is more disgraceful to distrust than to be deceived by our friends.
  • Variant translation: It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.
  • Maxim 84.

• Tout le monde se plaint de sa mémoire, et personne ne se plaint de son jugement.
  • Everyone complains about his memory, and no one complains about his judgment.
  • Maxim 89.

• Les vieillards aiment à donner de bons préceptes, pour se consoler de n'être plus en état de donner de mauvais exemples.
  • Old men delight in giving good advice as a consolation for the fact that they can no longer provide bad examples.
  • Maxim 93.

• Tel homme est ingrat, qui est moins coupable de son ingratitude que celui qui lui a fait du bien.
  • A man may be ungrateful but is less chargeable with ingratitude than his benefactor.
  • Maxim 96.

• Chacun dit du bien de son coeur et personne n'en ose dire de son esprit.
  • Everyone speaks well of his heart; no one dares speak well of his mind.
  • Maxim 98.

• Dans l'adversité de nos meilleurs amis, nous trouvons toujours quelque chose qui ne nous déplaît pas.
  • In the adversity of our best friends we often find something that is not exactly displeasing.
  • Maxim 99. This maxim is found only in the 1665 edition, and was removed by the author in later editions.

• L'esprit est toujours la dupe du coeur.
  • The mind is always the dupe of the heart.
  • Maxim 102.

• Tous ceux qui connaissent leur esprit ne connaissent pas leur coeur.
  • Those who know their minds do not know their hearts.
  • Maxim 103.

• On ne donne rien si libéralement que ses conseils.
  • Nothing is given so profusely as advice.
  • Maxim 110.

• Il y a de bons mariages, mais il n'y en a point de délicieux.
  • There are good marriages, but no delicious ones.
  • Maxim 113.

• L'intention de ne jamais tromper nous expose à être souvent trompés.
  • The intention of cheating no one lays us open to being cheated ourselves.
  • Maxim 118.

• Si nous résistons à nos passions, c'est plus par leur faiblesse que par notre force.
  • If we resist our passions, it is more through their weakness than our strength.
  • If we conquer our passions, it is more from their weakness than from our strength.
  • Maxim 122.

• Le vrai moyen d'être trompé, c'est de se croire plus fin que les autres.
  • The truest way to be deceived is to think oneself more knowing than others.
  • Maxim 127.

• Il suffit quelquefois d'être grossier pour n'être pas trompé par un habile homme.
  • Sometimes one must be base in order not to be tricked by a clever man.
  • Maxim 129.

• Il est plus aisé d'être sage pour les autres que de l'être pour soi-même.
  • It is easier to be wise for others than for oneself.
  • Maxim 132.

• Il y a des gens qui n'auraient jamais été amoureux s'ils n'avaint jamais entendu parler de l'amour.
  • There are people who would never be in love had they not heard [others] speak of love
  • Maxim 136. Variant translations:
    • People would never fall in love if they hadn’t heard love talked about.
    • There are some people who would never have fallen in love if they had not heard there was such a thing.

• On parle peu quand la vanité ne fait pas parler.
  • When not prompted by vanity, we say little.
  • Variant translation: We say little when vanity does not make us speak.
  • Maxim 137.

• On aime mieux dire du mal de soi-même que de n'en point parler.
  • We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all.
  • Maxim 138.

• Comme c’est le caractère des grands esprits de faire entendre en peu de paroles beaucoup de choses, les petits esprits au contraire ont le don de beaucoup parler, et de ne rien dire.
  • The stamp of great minds is to suggest much in few words; by contrast, little minds have the gift of talking a great deal and saying nothing.
  • Maxim 142.

• On ne loue d'ordinaire que pour être loué.
  • Usually we only praise to be praised.
  • Maxim 146.

• Il y a des reproches qui louent et des louanges qui médisent.
  • Some condemnations praise; some praise damns.
  • Maxim 148.

• Le refus des louanges est un désir d'être loué deux fois.
  • The refusal of praise is only the wish to be praised twice.
  • Maxim 149.

• Il est plus difficile de s’empêcher d’être gouverné que de gouverner les autres.
  • It is more difficult to avoid being ruled than to rule others.
  • Maxim 151.

• Ce n'est pas assez d'avoir de grandes qualités, il en faut avoir l'économie.
  • One must not just have great qualities, but also economize them
  • Variant translation: It is not enough to have great qualities; one must also make use of them sparingly.
  • Maxim 159.

• The art of using moderate abilities to advantage wins praise, and often acquires more reputation than actual brilliancy.
  • Maxim 162.

• Il est plus facile de paraître digne des emplois qu'on n'a pas que de ceux que l'on exerce.
  • It is easier to seem worthy of positions one does not have than of those one does.
  • Maxim 164.

• Il vaut mieux employer notre esprit à supporter les infortunes qui nous arrivent qu'à prévoir celles qui nous peuvent arriver.
  • It is better to set one's mind to bearing the misfortunes that are happening than to think of those that may happen.
  • Maxim 174.

• Notre repentir n'est pas tant un regret du mal que nous avons fait, qu'une crainte de celui qui nous en peut arriver.
  • Our repentance is not so much sorrow for the ill we have done as a fear of the ill that may befall us.
  • Maxim 180.

• Il n'appartient qu'aux grands hommes d'avoir de grands défauts.
  • Only great men have great faults.
  • Maxim 190.

• Les défauts de l'âme sont comme les blessures du corps: quelque soin qu'on prenne de les guérir, la cicatrice paraît toujours, et elles sont à tout moment en danger de se rouvrir.
  • The defects and faults in the mind are like wounds in the body. After all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind.
  • Variant translation: The defects of the mind are like the wounds of the body. Whatever care we take to heal them the scars ever remain, and there is always danger of their reopening.
  • Maxim 194.

• Ce qui nous empêche souvent de nous abandonner à un seul vice est que nous en avons plusieurs.
  • What often prevents us from abandoning ourselves to one vice is that we have several.
  • Maxim 195.

• Le désir de paraître habile empêche souvent de le devenir.
  • The desire to appear clever often prevents one from being so.
  • Maxim 199.

• Il y a des gens niais qui se connaissent et qui emploient habilement leur niaiserie.
  • There are foolish people who recognize their foolishness and use it skillfully.
  • Maxim 208.

• Qui vit sans folie n'est pas si sage qu'il croit.
  • Who lives without folly is not as wise as he thinks.
  • Maxim 209.

• En vieillissant on devient plus fou et plus sage.
  • As we age, we become more foolish and wiser.
  • Maxim 210.

• La plupart des gens ne jugent des hommes que par la vogue qu'ils ont, ou par leur fortune.
  • Most people judge men only by success or by fortune.
  • Variant translation: Most people judge men only by their fashion or their fortune.
  • Maxim 212.

• L'hypocrisie est un hommage que le vice rend à la vertu.
  • Hypocrisy is an homage that vice pays to virtue.
  • Maxim 218.

• Le trop grand empressement qu'on a de s'acquitter d'une obligation est une espèce d'ingratitude.
  • Too great a hurry to be discharged of an obligation is a kind of ingratitude.
  • Maxim 226.

• Les gens heureux ne se corrigent guère; ils croient toujours avoir raison quand la fortune soutient leur mauvaise conduite.
  • Fortunate people seldom mend their ways, for when good luck crowns their misdeeds with success they think it is because they are right.
  • Maxim 227.

• C'est une grande folie de vouloir être sage tout seul.
  • It is a great folly to wish to be wise alone.
  • Maxim 231.

• Nul ne mérite d’être loué de bonté, s’il n’a pas la force d’être méchant: toute autre bonté n’est le plus souvent qu’une paresse ou une impuissance de la volonté.
  • Nobody deserves to be praised for goodness unless he is strong enough to be bad, for any other goodness is usually merely inertia or lack of will-power.
  • Maxim 237.

• Il n'est pas si dangereux de faire du mal à la plupart des hommes que de leur faire trop de bien.
  • It is less dangerous to treat most men badly than to treat them to well.
  • Maxim 238.

• C'est une grande habileté que de savoir cacher son habileté.
  • There is great skill in knowing how to conceal one's skill.
  • Maxim 245.

• La véritable éloquence consiste à dire tout ce qu’il faut, et à ne dire que ce qu’il faut.
  • True eloquence consists in saying all that need be said and no more.
  • Maxim 250.

• Il y a des personnes à qui les défauts siéent bien, et d'autres qui sont disgraciées avec leurs bonnes qualités.
  • Some people's faults are becoming to them; others are disgraced by their own good traits.
  • Maxim 251.

• Dans toutes les professions chacun affecte une mine et un extérieur pour paraître ce qu'il veut qu'on le croie. Ainsi on peut dire que le monde n'est composé que de mines.
  • In all professions we affect a part and an appearance to seem what we wish to be. Thus the world is merely composed of actors.
  • Variant translation: In all professions, each affects a part and an appearance to make him seem as he would wish to be believed. And so it is that one can say that the world is made only of appearances.
  • Maxim 256.

• Le plaisir de l'amour est d'aimer; et l'on est plus heureux par la passion que l'on a que par celle que l'on donne.
  • The pleasure of love is in loving; we are happier in the passion we feel than in what we inspire.
  • Maxim 259. Compare: "They who inspire it most are fortunate, As I am now; but those who feel it most Are happier still", Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Unbound, Act ii, Scene 5.

• Il n'y a guère d'homme assez habile pour connaître tout le mal qu'il fait.
  • Hardly any man is clever enough to know all the evil he does.
  • Maxim 269.

• L'absence diminue les médiocres passions, et augmente les grandes, comme le vent éteint les bougies et allume le feu.[1]
  • Absence extinguishes the minor passions and increases the great ones, as the wind blows out a candle and fans a fire.
  • Variant translation: Absence weakens the minor passions and adds to the effects of great ones, as the wind blows out a candle and fans a fire.
  • Maxim 276.

• Il est impossible d'aimer une seconde fois ce qu'on a véritablement cessé d'aimer.
  • It is impossible to fall back in love with what one has stopped being in love with.
  • Maxim 286.

• Nous aimons toujours ceux qui nous admirent; et nous n'aimons pas toujours ceux que nous admirons.
  • We always like those who admire us; we do not always like those whom we admire.
  • Maxim 294.

• La reconnaissance de la plupart des hommes n'est qu'une secrète envie de recevoir de plus grands bienfaits.
  • The gratitude of most men is but a secret desire to receive even greater benefits.
  • Variant translation: Gratitude is the lively expectation of favours yet to come.
  • Maxim 298. Compare: "The gratitude of place-expectants is a lively sense of future favours", attributed to Sir Robert Walpole.

• Nous pardonnons souvent à ceux qui nous ennuient, mais nous ne pouvons pardonner à ceux que nous ennuyons.
  • We often forgive those who bore us, but we cannot forgive those whom we bore.
  • Maxim 304.

• On a fait une vertu de la modération pour borner l’ambition des grands hommes, et pour consoler les gens médiocres de leur peu de fortune, et de leur peu de mérite.
  • Moderation has been called a virtue to limit the ambition of great men, and to console undistinguished people for their want of fortune and their lack of merit.
  • Maxim 308.

• Il arrive quelquefois des accidents dans la vie d'où il faut être un peu fou pour se bien tirer.
  • There are many predicaments in life that one must be a bit crazy to escape from.
  • Maxim 310.

• Ce qui fait que les amants et les maîtresses ne s'ennuient point d'être ensemble, c'est qu'ils parlent toujours d'eux-mêmes.
  • Lovers never get tired of each other, because they are always talking about themselves.
  • Variant translation: What makes lovers and their mistresses never weary of being together is that they are always talking about themselves.
  • Maxim 312.

• L’extrême plaisir que nous prenons à parler de nous-mêmes nous doit faire craindre de n’en donner guere à ceux qui nous écoutent.
  • The extreme pleasure we take in talking about ourselves should make us afraid that we may scarcely be giving any to our listeners.
  • Translation by E.H. Blackmore et. al., in Collected Maxims and Other Reflections, de La Rochefoucauld, Oxford University Press (2008) : ISBN 019162313X
  • Maxim 314

• Ce n'est pas un grand malheur d'obliger des ingrats, mais c'en est un insupportable d'être obligé à un malhonnête homme.
  • It is not a pain to give to ingrates, but it is an intolerable one to be obliged to a dishonest man.
  • Variant translation: It is not a great misfortune to be of service to ingrates, but it is an intolerable one to be obliged to a dishonest man.
  • Maxim 317.

• Il y a dans la jalousie plus d'amour-propre que d'amour.
  • In jealousy there is more of self-love than love.
  • Maxim 324.

• Nous n'avouons de petits défauts que pour persuader que nous n'en avons pas de grands.
  • We confess to little faults only to persuade ourselves we have no great ones.
  • Maxim 327.

• On pardonne tant que l'on aime.
  • We pardon to the extent that we love.
  • Maxim 330.

• Nous ne trouvons guère de gens de bon sens, que ceux qui sont de notre avis.
  • We hardly find any persons of good sense save those who agree with us.
  • Maxim 347. Compare: "'That was excellently observed,' say I when I read a passage in another where his opinion agrees with mine. When we differ, then I pronounce him to be mistaken." Jonathan Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects.

• Ce qui nous donne tant d’aigreur contre ceux qui nous font des finesses, c’est qu’ils croient être plus habiles que nous.
  • What makes us so bitter against people who outwit us is that they think themselves cleverer than we are.
  • Maxim 350.

• La jalousie naît toujours avec l'amour, mais elle ne meurt pas toujours avec lui.
  • Jealousy is always born with love but does not always die with it.
  • Maxim 361.

• Il y a peu d'honnêtes femmes qui ne soient lasses de leur métier.
  • There are few honest women who are not tired of what they do.
  • Maxim 367.

• Les esprits médiocres condamnent d'ordinaire tout ce qui passe leur portée.
  • Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.
  • Maxim 375.

• Le plus grand défaut de la pénétration n'est pas de n'aller point jusqu'au but, c'est de le passer.
  • The greatest fault of a penetrating wit is to go beyond the mark.
  • Variant translation: The greatest fault of a penetrating mind is not to fail to attain the mark but to go beyond it.
  • Maxim 377.

• On donne des conseils mais on n'inspire point de conduite.
  • We may bestow advice, but we cannot inspire the conduct.
  • Variant translation: We give advice but do not inspire behavior.
  • Maxim 378.

• Il n'y a point de gens qui aient plus souvent tort que ceux qui ne peuvent souffrir d'en avoir.
  • There are few people who are more often wrong than those who cannot suffer being wrong.
  • Maxim 386.

• Ce qui nous rend la vanité des autres insupportable, c'est qu'elle blesse la nôtre.
  • What makes the vanity of others insufferable to us is that it wounds our own.
  • Maxim 389.

• Il faut gouverner la fortune comme la santé: en jouir quand elle est bonne, prendre patience quand elle est mauvaise.
  • Luck must be dealt with like health: enjoy it when it is good, be patient when it is bad.
  • Maxim 392.

• Il y a une élévation qui ne dépend point de la fortune: c’est un certain air qui nous distingue et qui semble nous destiner aux grandes choses; c’est un prix que nous nous donnons imperceptiblement à nous-mêmes; c’est par cette qualité que nous usurpons les déférences des autres hommes, et c’est elle d’ordinaire qui nous met plus au-dessus d’eux que la naissance, les dignités, et le mérite même.
  • There is a certain dignity of manner independent of fortune, a certain distinctive air which seems to mark us out for great things. It is a value we set upon ourselves without realizing it, and by means of this quality we claim other men’s deference as our due. This does more to set us above them than birth, honors, and merit itself.
  • Maxim 399.

• Il y a du mérite sans élévation, mais il n'y a point d'élévation sans quelque mérite.
  • There is merit without attainment, but no attainment without some merit.
  • Maxim 400.

• Nous aurions souvent honte de nos plus belles actions, si le monde voyoit tous les motifs qui les produisent.[2]
  • We should often be ashamed of our very best actions if the world only saw the motives which caused them.[3]
  • Maxim 409.

• La vivacité qui augmente en vieillissant ne va pas loin de la folie.
  • The vivacity which increases with old age is not so far removed from folly.
  • Maxim 416.

• En amour, celui qui est guéri le premier est toujours le mieux guéri.
  • In love, the first healed is the best healed.
  • Maxim 417.

• Peu de gens savent être vieux.
  • Few know how to be old.
  • Maxim 423.

• Rien n'empêche tant d'être naturel que l'envie de le paraître.
  • Nothing prevents us being natural so much as the desire to appear so.
  • Maxim 431.

• Il est plus aisé de connaître l'homme en général que de connaître un homme en particulier.
  • It is easier to know man in general than to know one man.
  • Variant translation: It is much easier to know men generally, than to know a particular man.
  • Maxim 436.

• Dans l'amitié comme dans l'amour on est souvent plus heureux par les choses qu'on ignore que par celles que l'on sait.
  • In friendship and in love, one is often happier because of what one does not know than what one knows.
  • Variant translation: In friendship as in love, we are often happier due to the things we are unaware of than the things we know.
  • Maxim 441.

• Nous essayons de nous faire honneur des défauts que nous ne voulons pas corriger.
  • We try to make virtues out of the faults we have no wish to correct.
  • Maxim 442.

• Il s'en faut bien que l'innocence ne trouve autant de protection que le crime.
  • Innocence is very far from finding as much protection as crime.
  • Maxim 465.

• De toutes les passions violentes, celle qui sied le moins mal aux femmes, c'est l'amour.
  • Of all violent passions, the least unbecoming to a woman is love.
  • Maxim 466.

• Dans les premières passions les femmes aiment l'amant, et dans les autres elles aiment l'amour.
  • In their first passion, women love their lovers; in all the others, they love love.
  • Maxim 471. Compare: "In her first passion woman loves her lover: In all the others, all she loves is love", Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto iii, Stanza 3.

• Il y a peu de femmes dont le mérite dure plus que la beauté.
  • Few women's merit lasts as long as their beauty.
  • Maxim 474.

• Il n'y a que les personnes qui ont de la fermeté qui puissent avoir une véritable douceur.
  • Only firm people can be truly soft.
  • Variant translation: It is only those who are firm who can be genuinely kind.
  • Maxim 479.

• Ceux qui ont eu de grandes passions se trouvent toute leur vie heureux, et malheureux, d'en être guéris.
  • Those who have had great passions are happy all their lives and would be unhappy to have been cured of them.
  • Maxim 485.

• Les querelles ne dureraient pas longtemps, si le tort n'était que d'un côté.
  • Quarrels would not last long if the fault were only on one side.
  • Maxim 496.

• Il ne sert à rien d'être jeune sans être belle, ni d'être belle sans être jeune.
  • It is useless to be young without being beautiful, or beautiful without being young.
  • Maxim 497.

Later Additions to the Maxims

• C’est une espèce de bonheur, de connaître jusqu’à quel point on doit être malheureux.
  • It is a kind of happiness to know how unhappy we must be.
  • Maxim 8 of the Maximes supprimées.

• Comment prétendons-nous qu'un autre puisse garder notre secret, si nous ne pouvons le garder nous-mêmes?
  • How can we expect others to keep our secrets if we cannot keep them ourselves?
  • Maxim 64 of the Maximes supprimées.

• C'est une ennuyeuse maladie que de conserver sa santé par un trop grand régime.
  • Preserving your health by too strict a diet is a tedious illness.
  • Maxim 72 of the Maximes supprimées.

• Il ne faut pas s’offenser que les autres nous cachent la vérité puisque nous nous la cachons si souvent à nous-mêmes.
  • We should not be upset that others hide the truth from us, when we hide it so often from ourselves.
  • Maxim 11 from the Manuscrit de Liancourt.

• Ce qui nous fait croire si facilement que les autres ont des défauts, c'est la facilité que l'on a de croire ce qu'on souhaite.
  • We are eager to believe that others are flawed because we are eager to believe in what we wish for.
  • Variant translation: What makes us believe so easily that others have faults is the ease with which we believe what we hope for.
  • Maxim 25 from the Manuscrit de Liancourt.

• Il est quelquefois agréable à un mari d'avoir une femme jalouse; il entend toujours parler de ce qu'il aime.
  • Sometimes it is pleasant for a husband to have a jealous wife: he always hears what he loves being talked about.
  • Maxim 48 from the Manuscrit de Liancourt.

• Il est plus difficile de dissimuler les sentiments que l'on a que de feindre ceux que l'on n'a pas.
  • It is harder to hide the feelings we have than to feign the ones we do not have.
  • Maxim 56 from the posthumously published 1693 edition of the Maximes.

• Les petits esprits sont blessés des plus petites choses
  • Small minds are hurt by the smallest things
  • Maxime 34 from the 1705 Amsterdam edition

• Ce qui fait que si peu de personnes sont agréables dans la conversation, c'est que chacun songe plus à ce qu'il veut dire qu'à ce que les autres disent.
  • The reason that there are so few good conversationalists is that most people are thinking about what they are going to say and not about what the others are saying.
  • Réflexions diverses, IV: De la conversation.

• Il faut écouter ceux qui parlent, si on veut en être écouté.
  • One must listen if one wishes to be listened to.
  • Réflexions diverses, IV: De la conversation.

• La pompe des enterrements regarde plus la vanité des vivants que l'honneur des morts.[4]
  • Funeral pomp is more for the vanity of the living than for the honor of the dead.
  • "Pensées Tirées des Premières Éditions," Réflexions: Ou, Sentences Et Maximes Morales de La Rochefoucauld (1822)

Quotes about La Rochefoucauld

• This is no time to be getting all steamed up about La Rochefoucauld. It's only a question of minutes before I'm going to be pretty darned good and sick of La Rochefoucauld, once and for all. La Rochefoucauld this and La Rochefoucauld that. Yes, well, let me tell you that if nobody had ever learned to quote, very few people would be in love with La Rochefoucauld. I bet you I don't know ten souls who read him without a middleman.
  • Dorothy Parker short story The Little Hours published in Here Lies (1939), the narrator during insomnia dwelling on La Rochefoucauld's pronouncement that if nobody learned to read, very few people would be in love.

• As Rochefoucauld his maxims drew
  From Nature, I believe 'em true:
  They argue no corrupted mind
  In him; the fault is in mankind.
  • Jonathan Swift, Verses on the Death of Doctor Swift

External links

• Brief biography at Kirjasto (Pegasos)
• Francois duc de La Rochefoucauld bio and selections from Maxims
• Works by François de La Rochefoucauld at Project Gutenberg
• Experimental version of the Maxims (in French)
• The Maxims in French Wikisource