The generality of virtuous women are like hidden treasures, they are safe only because nobody has sought after them.
Passion makes idiots of the cleverest men, and makes the biggest idiots clever.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Passion can cloud judgment, making intelligent people act foolishly, while it can also empower less clever individuals.
This quote by Francois De La Rochefoucauld highlights the paradoxical nature of passion, suggesting that it can lead even the most intelligent individuals to make irrational decisions, while simultaneously enabling those with less intelligence to achieve unexpected success. It reflects on the idea that strong emotions can disrupt logic and rational thinking, demonstrating how deeply personal motivations can influence behavior in both positive and negative ways.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about the importance of following your passion, this quote could be used to illustrate the dual nature of strong emotions.
More from Francois De La Rochefoucauld
All quotes βOld 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.
Similar quotes
Repressed anger becomes a temporary madness. Something happens which is beyond your control. If you could have controlled, you would have controlled it still -- but suddenly it was overflowing. Suddenly it was beyond you. You couldn't do anything, you felt helpless -- and it came out. Such a person may not be angry, but he moves and lives in anger.
Fools call wise men fools. A wise man never calls any man a fool.
How can one learn to know oneself? Never by introspection, rather by action.
The mistakes we make when we try to imagine our personal futures are also lawful, regular, and systematic. They, too, have a pattern that tells us about the powers and limits of foresight in much the same way that optical illusions tell us about the powers and limits of eyesight.
You always admire what you really don't understand. - Eleanor Roosevelt
There was a moment when I changed from an amateur to a professional. I assumed the burden of a profession, which is to write even when you don't want to, don't much like what you're writing, and aren't writing particularly well