FridaySep 11, 2026
Quotes: 53419 Authors: 9969
Deprived of the company of fools, a great wit does not seem half so clever.
Few things are needed to make a wise man happy; nothing can make a fool content.
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.
Perfect virtue consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone.
It is to be a truly virtuous man to wish to be always exposed to the view of virtuous people.
Vanity makes us do more things against inclination than reason.
When not prompted by vanity, we say little.
The highest skill is the true judgment of values.
We seldom find people ungrateful so long as it is thought we can serve them.
More things are left undone through neglect of duty than through neglect of self-interest.
There goes another beautiful theory about to be murdered by a brutal gang of facts.
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.
Those who give too much attention to trifling things become generally incapable of great ones.
Tricks and treachery are merely proofs of lack of skill.
When we are unable to find tranquillity within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
To establish oneself in the world, one does all one can to seem established there already.
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.
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.
To safeguard one's health at the cost of too strict a diet is a tiresome illness indeed.
We come fresh to the different stages of life, and in each of them we are quite inexperienced, no matter how old we are.
A man of wit could often be embarrassed without the company of fools.
Sincerity is an open heart. Few people show it; usually what we see is an imitation put on to snare the confidence of others.
One who finds no satisfaction in himself seeks for it in vain elsewhere.
Not all those who know their minds know their hearts as well.
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.
We work so consistently to disguise ourselves to others that we end by being disguised to ourselves.
It is easier to deceive yourself, and to do so unperceived, than to deceive another.
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.
We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not speak of ourselves at all.
The confidence which we have in ourselves gives birth to much of that which we have in others.
To be deceived by our enemies or betrayed by our friends in insupportable; yet by ourselves we are often content to be so treated.
Our repentance is not so much regret for the evil we have done, as fear of its consequences to us.
Quarrels would not last so long if the fault were only on one side.
We promise according to our hopes, and perform according to our fears.
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.
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.
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.
Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.
Few things are impracticable in themselves; and it is for want of application, rather than of means, that men fail to succeed.
We think very few people sensible, except those who are of our opinion.
However brilliant an action, it should not be esteemed great unless the result of a great motive.
We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.
The mind cannot long act the role of the heart.
We should not judge of a mans merit by his good qualities, but by the use he can make of them.
Everyone complains of his lack of memory, but nobody of his want of judgment.
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?
Minds of moderate caliber ordinarily condemn everything which is beyond their range.
Too great haste to repay an obligation is a kind of ingratitude.
The pleasure of love is in loving. We are much happier in the passion we feel than in that we inspire.
We pardon to the extent that we love.
True love is like ghosts, which everybody talks about and few have seen.
There is only one sort of love, but there are a thousand copies.
There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists or simulate it where it does not.
It is with true love as it is with ghosts; everyone talks about it, but few have seen it.
If one judges love by the majority of its effects, it is more like hatred than like friendship.
We always love those who admire us; we do not always love those whom we admire.
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.
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.
The love of Justice in most men is simply the fear of suffering Injustice.
Love of justice in the generality of men is only the fear of suffering from injustice.
In jealousy there is more of self-love, than of love to another.
Indolence and timidity often keep us to our duty, while our virtue carries off all the credit of doing so.
Hypocrisy is the homage which vice pays to virtue.
Hypocrisy is homage paid by vice to virtue.
Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.
When a man's acts are honest and just, it is hard to know if they result from righteousness or cleverness.
The head is ever the dupe of the heart.
We are never so happy, nor so unhappy, as we suppose ourselves to be.
We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves.
One is never so happy or so unhappy as one thinks.
Happiness and misery depend as much on temperament as on fortune.
The truest mark of being born with great qualities, is being born without envy.
Every great action is extreme.
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.
Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors.
If we had no faults ourselves, we should not take so much pleasure in remarking them in others.
It takes a better man to survive good luck than bad.
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.
When our vices leave us, we flatter ourselves that we have left them.
Organize one's values in the order of their worth.
What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small interest in order to secure a great one.
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.
We praise in others what we find in ourselves; true friendship grows when self-esteem is flattered by mutual agreement in tastes and pleasures.
A true friend is the greatest of all blessings and the one which we take the least thought to acquire.
In the misfortune of our best friends, we find something which is not displeasing to us.
No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.
The most trying fools are the bright ones.
He who lives without folly is not so wise as he imagines.
Flattery is counterfeit money which, but for vanity, would have no circulation.
We easily forget our faults when they are known only to ourselves.
We confess our faults, to make amends by our sincerity for the harm they have done us in the opinion of others.
Quarrels would not last long if the fault were on one side only.
Had we ourselves no faults we should find less pleasure discovering them in others.
Almost all our faults are more pardonable than the methods we resort to to hide them.
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.
Our strength exceeds our will; how often we say things are impossible when we are looking for an excuse.
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.
There are bad people who would be less dangerous if they were quite devoid of goodness.
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 is an eloquent silence: it serves sometimes to approve, sometimes to condemn; there is a mocking silence; there is a respectful silence.
We often do good in order that we may do evil with impunity.
There is no disguise that can for long conceal love where it exists or simulate it where it does not.
Before we set our hearts too much on anything, let us examine how happy are those who already possess it.
Although men flatter themselves with their great actions, they are not so often the result of great design as of chance.
Courage is doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone.
What the superior man seeks is in himself: what the small man seeks is in others.
Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would do with the world looking on
Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on.
When we cannot find contentment in ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
Confidence contributes more to conversation than wit.
Conceit causes more conversation than wit.
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.
We seldom attribute common sense except to those who agree with us.
The height of cleverness is to be able to conceal it.
Few persons have sufficient wisdom to prefer censure, which is useful, to praise which deceives them.
Nothing prevents us from being natural so much as the desire to appear so.
We all have enough strength to bear other people's woes.
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 give nothing so freely as advice.
We give advice, we do not inspire conduct.
Old people love to give good advice; it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example.
Nothing is given so willingly as advice.
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.
In the adversity of our best friends we always find something which is not wholly displeasing to us.
We all have enough strength to bear the misfortunes of others.
It is not sufficient to have great qualities; we must be able to make good use of them.
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.
Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as wind blows out candles and fans fire.
To know how to hide one's ability is great skill.
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.
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 labor of the body relieves us from the fatigues of the mind; and it is this which forms the happiness of the poor.
The love of justice in most men is only the fear of suffering injustice.
The more we love the nearer we are to hate.
The pleasure of love is in loving. We are happier in the passion we feel than in that which we excite.
The qualities we have do not make us so ridiculous as those which we affect to have.
The reason why lovers are never weary of one another is this - they are always talking of themselves.
The defects of the understanding, like those of the face, grow worse as we grow old.
The strongest symptom of wisdom in man is his being sensible of his own follies.
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 virtues are lost in self-interest As rivers are lost in the sea.
There are few people who are more often in the wrong than those who cannot endure to be thought so.
Some people with great virtues are disagreeable, while others with great vices are delightful.
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.
Wisdom is to the mind what health is to the body.
Whenever Fortune sends Disasters to our Dearest Friends, Although we outwardly may grieve, We oft are laughing in our sleeve.
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.
When our vices leave us, we flatter ourselves with the idea that we have left them.
The ambitious deceive themselves when they propose an end to their ambition; for that end, when attained, becomes a means.
When our hatred is violent, it sinks us even beneath those we hate.
Self love, as it happens to be well or ill conducted, constitutes virtue and vice.
Weakness is the only fault that is incorrigible.
Weakness is more opposite to virtue than is vice itself.
Whatever disgrace we may have deserved, it is almost always in our power to re-establish our character.
We should often be ashamed of our very best actions, if the world only saw the motives which caused them.
There is such a thing as a general revolution which changes the taste of men as it changes the fortunes of the world.
We often boast that we are never bored, but yet we are so conceited that we do not perceive how often we bore others.
We need greater virtues to sustain good fortune than bad.
We can never be certain of our courage until we have faced danger.
Truth does not do so much good in the world, As the appearance of it does evil.
True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary, And nothing but what is necessary.
True bravery is shown by performing without witness what one might be capable of doing before all the world.
Too great refinement is false delicacy, And true delicacy is solid refinement.
There may be good, but there are no pleasant marriages.
We sometimes see a fool possessed of talent, But never of judgment.
He who lives without committing any folly is not so wise as he thinks.
Jealousy lives upon doubts, it becomes madness or ceases entirely as soon as we pass from doubt to certainty.
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.
It is with true love as it is with ghosts; everyone talks of it, but few have seen it.
It is never so difficult to speak as when we are ashamed of our silence.
It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.
It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.
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 a common fault never to be satisfied with our fortune, nor dissatisfied with our understanding.
In jealousy there is more self-love than love.
The fame of great men ought always to be estimated by the means used to acquire it.
If we judge of love by most of its results, it resembles hatred more than friendship.
If we have not peace within ourselves, it is in vain to seek it from outward sources.
However deceitful hope may be, yet she carries us on pleasantly to the end of life.
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.
Hope and fear are inseparable.
In the adversity of our best friends we often find something which does not displease us.
Great praise is heaped on prudence; yet there is not the most insignificant event of which it can make us sure.
Good taste come more from the judgment than from the mind.
Few things are impracticable in themselves. It is for want of application, rather than of means, that men fail.
Few persons know how to be old.
Everyone complains of his memory; no one complains of his judgment.
Cunning and treachery are the offspring of incapacity.
Chance corrects us of many faults that reason would not know how to correct.
As we grow old we become both more foolish and more wise.
As love increases, prudence diminishes.
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.
Although men flatter themselves with their great actions, they are not so often the result of a great design as of chance.
Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans a fire.
How can we expect another to keep our secret if we cannot keep it ourselves.
Our actions are like the terminations of verses, which we rhyme as we please.
One often passes from love to ambition, But one rarely returns from ambition to love.
One kind of happiness is to know exactly at what point to be miserable.
One gets into situations in life from which it is necessary to be a little mad to extricate oneself successfully.
Old age is a tyrant, which forbids the pleasure of youth on pain of death.
Of all our faults, the one that we excuse most easily is idleness.
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.
No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does.
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.
Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.
Perseverance merits neither blame nor praise; it is only the duration of our inclinations and sentiments, which we can neither create nor extinguish.
Self-love is more cunning than the most cunning man in the world.
Our enemies come nearer the truth in the opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of ourselves.
Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.
Our virtues are most frequently but vices disguised.
Pride which inspires us with so much envy, serves also to moderate it.
Pride does not wish to owe and vanity does not wish to pay.
Preserving the health by too strict a regimen is a wearisome malady.
Philosophy triumphs easily over past and future evils; But present evils triumph over it.
Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye.
Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue.
True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen.
Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.
There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not.
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