Francois De La Rochefoucauld

The generality of virtuous women are like hidden treasures, they are safe only because nobody has sought after them.

Old men delight in giving good advice as a consolation for the fact that they can no longer set bad examples.

Some counterfeits reproduce so very well the truth that it would be a flaw of judgment not to be deceived by them.

Conceit causes more conversation than wit.

The defects and faults of 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, and they are in continual danger of breaking the skin and bursting out again.

To understand matters rightly we should understand their details; and as that knowledge is almost infinite, our knowledge is always superficial and imperfect.

In most of mankind gratitude is merely a secret hope of further favors.

Old people love to give good advice; it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example.

Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.

We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it.

However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship.

Our desires always disappoint us; for though we meet with something that gives us satisfaction, yet it never thoroughly answers our expectation. [However disappointment can always be removed if we remember it could have turned out worse.]

What makes us so often discontented with those who transact business for us is that they almost always abandon the interest of their friends for the interest of the business, because they wish to have the honor of succeeding in that which they have undertaken.

The strongest symptom of wisdom in man is his being sensible of his own follies.

We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.

On why I don't trust democracy without extremely powerful systems of accountability and recall What seems to be generosity is often only disguised ambition - which despises small interests to gain great ones.

A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.

To know how to hide one's ability is great skill.

Bodily labor alleviates the pains of the mind and from this arises the happiness of the poor

There is no better proof of a man's being truly good than his desiring to be constantly under the observation of good men.

Hypocrisy is an homage that vice renders to virtue.