WednesdaySep 02, 2026
Quotes: 53419 Authors: 9969
There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not.
Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.
True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen.
Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue.
Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye.
Philosophy triumphs easily over past and future evils; But present evils triumph over it.
Preserving the health by too strict a regimen is a wearisome malady.
Pride does not wish to owe and vanity does not wish to pay.
Pride which inspires us with so much envy, serves also to moderate it.
Our virtues are most frequently but vices disguised.
Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.
Our enemies come nearer the truth in the opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of ourselves.
Self-love is more cunning than the most cunning man in the world.
Perseverance merits neither blame nor praise; it is only the duration of our inclinations and sentiments, which we can neither create nor extinguish.
Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.
No man deserves to be praised for his goodness unless he has the strength of character to be wicked. All other goodness is generally nothing but indolence or impotence of will.
No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does.
Nothing is impossible; there are ways that lead to everything, and if we had sufficient will we should Always have sufficient means. It is often merely for An excuse that we say things are impossible.
Of all our faults, the one that we excuse most easily is idleness.
Old age is a tyrant, which forbids the pleasure of youth on pain of death.
One gets into situations in life from which it is necessary to be a little mad to extricate oneself successfully.
One kind of happiness is to know exactly at what point to be miserable.
One often passes from love to ambition, But one rarely returns from ambition to love.
Our actions are like the terminations of verses, which we rhyme as we please.
How can we expect another to keep our secret if we cannot keep it ourselves.
Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans a fire.
Although men flatter themselves with their great actions, they are not so often the result of a great design as of chance.
As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so it is of small wits to talk much and say nothing.
As love increases, prudence diminishes.
As we grow old we become both more foolish and more wise.
Chance corrects us of many faults that reason would not know how to correct.
Cunning and treachery are the offspring of incapacity.
Everyone complains of his memory; no one complains of his judgment.
Few persons know how to be old.
Few things are impracticable in themselves. It is for want of application, rather than of means, that men fail.
Good taste come more from the judgment than from the mind.
Great praise is heaped on prudence; yet there is not the most insignificant event of which it can make us sure.
In the adversity of our best friends we often find something which does not displease us.
Hope and fear are inseparable.
Men have made a virtue of moderation to limit the ambition of the great, and to console people of mediocrity for their want of fortune and of merit.
However deceitful hope may be, yet she carries us on pleasantly to the end of life.
If we have not peace within ourselves, it is in vain to seek it from outward sources.
If we judge of love by most of its results, it resembles hatred more than friendship.
The fame of great men ought always to be estimated by the means used to acquire it.
In jealousy there is more self-love than love.
It is a common fault never to be satisfied with our fortune, nor dissatisfied with our understanding.
It is as easy to deceive one's self without perceiving it, As it is difficult to deceive others without their finding it out.
It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.
It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.
It is never so difficult to speak as when we are ashamed of our silence.
It is with true love as it is with ghosts; everyone talks of it, but few have seen it.
Jealousy is, in some sort, rational and just; it aims at the preservation of a good which belongs, or which we think belongs, to us; whereas envy is a frenzy that cannot endure, even in idea, the good of others.
Jealousy lives upon doubts, it becomes madness or ceases entirely as soon as we pass from doubt to certainty.
He who lives without committing any folly is not so wise as he thinks.
We sometimes see a fool possessed of talent, But never of judgment.
There may be good, but there are no pleasant marriages.
Too great refinement is false delicacy, And true delicacy is solid refinement.
True bravery is shown by performing without witness what one might be capable of doing before all the world.
True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary, And nothing but what is necessary.
Truth does not do so much good in the world, As the appearance of it does evil.
We can never be certain of our courage until we have faced danger.
We need greater virtues to sustain good fortune than bad.
We often boast that we are never bored, but yet we are so conceited that we do not perceive how often we bore others.
There is such a thing as a general revolution which changes the taste of men as it changes the fortunes of the world.
We should often be ashamed of our very best actions, if the world only saw the motives which caused them.
Whatever disgrace we may have deserved, it is almost always in our power to re-establish our character.
Weakness is more opposite to virtue than is vice itself.
Weakness is the only fault that is incorrigible.
Self love, as it happens to be well or ill conducted, constitutes virtue and vice.
When our hatred is violent, it sinks us even beneath those we hate.
The ambitious deceive themselves when they propose an end to their ambition; for that end, when attained, becomes a means.
When our vices leave us, we flatter ourselves with the idea that we have left them.
When the heart is still agitated by the remains of a passion, we are more ready to receive a new one than when we are entirely cured.
Whenever Fortune sends Disasters to our Dearest Friends, Although we outwardly may grieve, We oft are laughing in our sleeve.
Wisdom is to the mind what health is to the body.
We should manage our fortune as we do our health - enjoy it when good, be patient when it is bad, and never apply violent remedies except in an extreme necessity.
Some people with great virtues are disagreeable, while others with great vices are delightful.
There are few people who are more often in the wrong than those who cannot endure to be thought so.
The virtues are lost in self-interest As rivers are lost in the sea.
The vices enter into the composition of the virtues, As poisons into that of medicines. Prudence collects, arranges, and uses them Beneficially against the ills of life.
The strongest symptom of wisdom in man is his being sensible of his own follies.
The defects of the understanding, like those of the face, grow worse as we grow old.
The reason why lovers are never weary of one another is this - they are always talking of themselves.
The qualities we have do not make us so ridiculous as those which we affect to have.
The pleasure of love is in loving. We are happier in the passion we feel than in that which we excite.
The more we love the nearer we are to hate.
The love of justice in most men is only the fear of suffering injustice.
The labor of the body relieves us from the fatigues of the mind; and it is this which forms the happiness of the poor.
The art of being able to make a good use of moderate abilities wins esteem, and often confers more reputation than greater real merit.
The height of ability consists in a thorough knowledge of the real value of things, and of the genius of the age in which we live.
To know how to hide one's ability is great skill.
Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as wind blows out candles and fans fire.
No accident so grave but that the clever man can turn it to some good; no luck so great but that the fool can twist it to his hurt.
It is not sufficient to have great qualities; we must be able to make good use of them.
We all have enough strength to bear the misfortunes of others.
In the adversity of our best friends we always find something which is not wholly displeasing to us.
Man is never less sincere than when he asks, or offers, advice. When he asks it, he seems to defer to the wisdom of his friend, but really he seeks approval of his own opinion, and to make his friend responsible with him for his actions. When he offers advice, he seems to repay the confidence of his inquirer with disinterested zeal, while really seeking to bolster his own advantage or reputation.
Nothing is given so willingly as advice.
Old people love to give good advice; it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example.
We give advice, we do not inspire conduct.
We give nothing so freely as advice.
Nothing is less sincere than our mode of asking and giving advice. He who asks seems to have a deference for the opinion of his friend, while he only aims to get approval of his own and make his friend responsible for his action. And he who gives advice repays the confidence supposed to be placed in him by a seemingly disinterested zeal, while he seldom means anything by his advice but his own interest or reputation.
We all have enough strength to bear other people's woes.
Nothing prevents us from being natural so much as the desire to appear so.
Few persons have sufficient wisdom to prefer censure, which is useful, to praise which deceives them.
The height of cleverness is to be able to conceal it.
We seldom attribute common sense except to those who agree with us.
The reason so few men can carry on a sensible and agreeable conversation is that there is hardly one but thinks more of what he himself intends to say than of what is being said to him by others. Sometimes even the cleverest and politest man only feigns attention, while we can see by his eyes that his mind has gone back to polish up his own remarks. He does not consider that the worst way to win over others is to talk for his own pleasure, and that the best conversationalist is he who listens with care and answers to the point.
Conceit causes more conversation than wit.
Confidence contributes more to conversation than wit.
When we cannot find contentment in ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on.
Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would do with the world looking on
What the superior man seeks is in himself: what the small man seeks is in others.
Courage is doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone.
Although men flatter themselves with their great actions, they are not so often the result of great design as of chance.
Before we set our hearts too much on anything, let us examine how happy are those who already possess it.
There is no disguise that can for long conceal love where it exists or simulate it where it does not.
We often do good in order that we may do evil with impunity.
There is an eloquent silence: it serves sometimes to approve, sometimes to condemn; there is a mocking silence; there is a respectful silence.
Enthusiasm is the most convincing orator; it is like the functioning of an infallible law of nature. The simplest man, fired with enthusiasm, is more persuasive than the most eloquent without it.
There are bad people who would be less dangerous if they were quite devoid of goodness.
Nothing is so contagious as an example. We never do great good or evil without bringing about more of the same on the part of others.
Our strength exceeds our will; how often we say things are impossible when we are looking for an excuse.
Nothing is impossible: there are ways which lead to everything; and if we had sufficient will we should always have sufficient means. It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible.
Almost all our faults are more pardonable than the methods we resort to to hide them.
Had we ourselves no faults we should find less pleasure discovering them in others.
Quarrels would not last long if the fault were on one side only.
We confess our faults, to make amends by our sincerity for the harm they have done us in the opinion of others.
We easily forget our faults when they are known only to ourselves.
Flattery is counterfeit money which, but for vanity, would have no circulation.
He who lives without folly is not so wise as he imagines.
The most trying fools are the bright ones.
No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.
In the misfortune of our best friends, we find something which is not displeasing to us.
A true friend is the greatest of all blessings and the one which we take the least thought to acquire.
We praise in others what we find in ourselves; true friendship grows when self-esteem is flattered by mutual agreement in tastes and pleasures.
What men have called friendship is only a social arrangement, a mutual adjustment of interests, an interchange of services given and received; it is, in sum, simply a business from which those involved propose to derive a steady profit for their own self-love.
What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small interest in order to secure a great one.
Organize one's values in the order of their worth.
When our vices leave us, we flatter ourselves that we have left them.
No man deserves to be praised for his goodness unless he has strength of character to be wicked. All other goodness is generally nothing but indolence or impotence of will.
It takes a better man to survive good luck than bad.
If we had no faults ourselves, we should not take so much pleasure in remarking them in others.
Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors.
In most of mankind, gratitude is merely a secret hope of further favours. Note: A saying ascribed to Sir Robert Walpole by Hazlitt in his Wit and Humor: 'The gratitude of place-expectants is a lively sense of future favours' is obviously derived from La Rochefoucauld.
Every great action is extreme.
The truest mark of being born with great qualities, is being born without envy.
Happiness and misery depend as much on temperament as on fortune.
One is never so happy or so unhappy as one thinks.
We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves.
We are never so happy, nor so unhappy, as we suppose ourselves to be.
The head is ever the dupe of the heart.
When a man's acts are honest and just, it is hard to know if they result from righteousness or cleverness.
Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.
Hypocrisy is homage paid by vice to virtue.
Hypocrisy is the homage which vice pays to virtue.
Indolence and timidity often keep us to our duty, while our virtue carries off all the credit of doing so.
In jealousy there is more of self-love, than of love to another.
Love of justice in the generality of men is only the fear of suffering from injustice.
The love of Justice in most men is simply the fear of suffering Injustice.
One thing which makes us find so few people who appear reasonable and agreeable in conversation is, that there is scarcely anyone who does not think more of what he is about to say than of answering precisely what is said to him. The cleverest and most complaisant people content themselves with merely showing an attentive countenance, while we can see in their eyes and minds a wandering from what is said to them, and an impatience to return to what they wish to say; instead of reflecting that it is a bad method of pleasing or persuading others to be so studious of pleasing oneself; and that listening well and answering well is one of the greatest perfections that can be attained in conversation.
There are two sorts of constancy in loveone arises from continually discovering in the loved person new subjects for love, the other arises from our making a merit of being constant.
We always love those who admire us; we do not always love those whom we admire.
If one judges love by the majority of its effects, it is more like hatred than like friendship.
It is with true love as it is with ghosts; everyone talks about it, but few have seen it.
There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists or simulate it where it does not.
There is only one sort of love, but there are a thousand copies.
True love is like ghosts, which everybody talks about and few have seen.
We pardon to the extent that we love.
The pleasure of love is in loving. We are much happier in the passion we feel than in that we inspire.
Too great haste to repay an obligation is a kind of ingratitude.
Minds of moderate caliber ordinarily condemn everything which is beyond their range.
Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?
Everyone complains of his lack of memory, but nobody of his want of judgment.
We should not judge of a mans merit by his good qualities, but by the use he can make of them.
The mind cannot long act the role of the heart.
We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.
However brilliant an action, it should not be esteemed great unless the result of a great motive.
We think very few people sensible, except those who are of our opinion.
Few things are impracticable in themselves; and it is for want of application, rather than of means, that men fail to succeed.
Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.
Often we exaggerate the goodness of others more for our own virtue in giving praise than for the virtues that we praise: thus we invite commendation by seeming to dispense it.
Our pride rather than our virtue criticizes the faults of others: We reprove our friends less to correct their faults than to show that weourselves are free of them.
Pride more often than ignorance makes us refuse to accept new ideas: finding the first places taken in the intellectual parade, we refuse to take the last.
We promise according to our hopes, and perform according to our fears.
Quarrels would not last so long if the fault were only on one side.
Our repentance is not so much regret for the evil we have done, as fear of its consequences to us.
To be deceived by our enemies or betrayed by our friends in insupportable; yet by ourselves we are often content to be so treated.
The confidence which we have in ourselves gives birth to much of that which we have in others.
We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not speak of ourselves at all.
He who thinks he can find in himself the means of doing without others is much mistaken; but he who thinks that others cannot do without him is still more mistaken.
It is easier to deceive yourself, and to do so unperceived, than to deceive another.
We work so consistently to disguise ourselves to others that we end by being disguised to ourselves.
What makes us like new acquaintances is not so much any weariness of our old ones, or the pleasure of change, as disgust at not being sufficiently admired by those who know us too well, and the hope of being more so by those who do not know so much of us.
Not all those who know their minds know their hearts as well.
One who finds no satisfaction in himself seeks for it in vain elsewhere.
Sincerity is an open heart. Few people show it; usually what we see is an imitation put on to snare the confidence of others.
A man of wit could often be embarrassed without the company of fools.
We come fresh to the different stages of life, and in each of them we are quite inexperienced, no matter how old we are.
To safeguard one's health at the cost of too strict a diet is a tiresome illness indeed.
As it is the characteristic of great wits to convey a great deal in a few words, so, on the contrary, small wits have the gift of speaking much and saying nothing.
Were we to take as much pains to be what we ought, as we do to disguise what we are, we might appear like ourselves without being at the trouble of any disguise at all.
To establish oneself in the world, one does all one can to seem established there already.
When we are unable to find tranquillity within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
Tricks and treachery are merely proofs of lack of skill.
Those who give too much attention to trifling things become generally incapable of great ones.
A shrewd man has to arrange his interests in order of importance and deal with them one by one; but often our greed upsets this order and makes us run after so many things at once that through over-anxiety to obtain the trivial, we miss the most important.
There goes another beautiful theory about to be murdered by a brutal gang of facts.
More things are left undone through neglect of duty than through neglect of self-interest.
We seldom find people ungrateful so long as it is thought we can serve them.
The highest skill is the true judgment of values.
When not prompted by vanity, we say little.
Vanity makes us do more things against inclination than reason.
It is to be a truly virtuous man to wish to be always exposed to the view of virtuous people.
Perfect virtue consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone.
A clever man should organize his self-interests in the order of their worth. Greediness often defeats its own end, by making us scratch for every trifle when we should dig for gold alone.
Few things are needed to make a wise man happy; nothing can make a fool content.
Deprived of the company of fools, a great wit does not seem half so clever.
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