The generality of virtuous women are like hidden treasures, they are safe only because nobody has sought after them.
Francois De La RochefoucauldRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Sincerity is rare; most people mask their true intentions to gain trust.
This quote by Francois De La Rochefoucauld emphasizes that true sincerity is a quality that is often absent in social interactions. Instead of genuine openness, many individuals engage in calculated behaviors to deceive and manipulate others into trusting them, highlighting a significant lack of authenticity in relationships.
Themes
SincerityTruthAuthenticityTrustRelationships
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a discussion about honesty in relationships.
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.
Francois De La RochefoucauldRead
Some counterfeits reproduce so very well the truth that it would be a flaw of judgment not to be deceived by them.
Francois De La RochefoucauldRead
Conceit causes more conversation than wit.
Francois De La RochefoucauldRead
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.
Francois De La RochefoucauldRead
To understand matters rightly we should understand their details; and as that knowledge is almost infinite, our knowledge is always superficial and imperfect.
Francois De La RochefoucauldRead
Similar quotes
We had been hopelessly labouring to plough waste lands; to make nationality grow in a place full of the certainty of Godβ¦ Among the tribes our creed could be only like the desert grass β a beautiful swift seeming of spring; which, after a dayβs heat, fell dusty.
T. E. LawrenceRead
Why is our own participation in scapegoating so difficult to perceive and the participation of others so easy? To us, our fears and prejudices never appear as such because they determine our vision of people we despise, we fear, and against whom we discriminate.
Rene GirardRead
Those who learned to know death, rather than to fear and fight it, become our teachers about life.
Elisabeth Kubler-RossRead
Enlightenment is not something you achieve. It is the absence of something. All your life you have been going forward after something, pursuing some goal. Enlightenment is dropping all that.
Joko BeckRead
The opinions and beliefs of men follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds.
Thomas JeffersonRead
The news and the truth are not the same thing.
Walter LippmannRead