The generality of virtuous women are like hidden treasures, they are safe only because nobody has sought after them.
Francois De La RochefoucauldRead
He who imagines he can do without the world deceives himself much; but he who fancies the world cannot do without him is still more mistaken.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the interconnectedness of individuals and the world, suggesting that neither can exist independently of the other.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld's quote reflects on the mutual dependency between individuals and the broader world. It points out that those who believe they can isolate themselves from societal influences are fooling themselves, while those who underestimate their significance in the world are equally mistaken. This highlights the importance of recognizing the relationship between self and society, underscoring that each person plays a crucial role in shaping the world as much as the world influences the individual.
Themes
InterconnectednessSocietySelfDependencyInfluence
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about social responsibility, you might use this quote to illustrate the importance of community.
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
Flying has torn apart the relationship of space and time: it uses our old clock but with new yardsticks.
Charles LindberghRead
I'm interested in non-fiction, but a form of it which is very badly behaved, which doesn't define itself as straight-ahead journalism or memoir. It blurs boundaries, plays fast and loose with the truth - not to be silly, whimsical or lazy, but to get greater purchase on what it feels like to be alive.
David ShieldsRead
Solomon, who was one of the Deity's favorites, had a copulation cabinet composed of seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. To save his life he could not have kept two of these young creatures satisfactorily refreshed, even if he had fifteen experts to help him. Necessarily almost the entire thousand had to go hungry for years and years on a stretch. Conceive of a man hardhearted enough to look daily upon all that suffering and not be moved to mitigate it.
Mark TwainRead
A good cause can become bad if we fight for it with means that are indiscriminately murderous. A bad cause can become good if enough people fight for it in a spirit of comradeship and self-sacrifice. In the end it is how you fight, as much as why you fight, that makes your cause good or bad.
Freeman DysonRead
That however the brains and abilities of men may differ, their stomachs are essentially the same.
F. Scott FitzgeraldRead
If we look to the saints, this great luminous wake with which God has passed through history, we truly see that here is a force for good that survives through millennia; here is truly light from light.
Pope Benedict XviRead