François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, 1613 - 1680
Oil portrait at Musée national du Château de Varsailles
Born: 15 September 1613, Paris, France
Died: 17 March 1680, Paris, France
From a noble family, François had little or no formal schooling but was trained in Latin, mathematics, fencing, dancing, heraldry, and etiquette. He took arms early, possibly in his tenth year, and was in command of a regiment at age fifteen. Noted for bravery in battle but ill-advised politics, he took issue with various powerful persons, notably Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin, which meant he was banished on several occasions and made his home in the Bastille briefly. Later in life he joined a salon in which the goal was to carefully hone observations on human character in one sentence. He turned out to be both prolific and skilled in this, and in his retirement collected several hundred Maximes which were published and sold well in his life.
As he wrote in French, all of the quotes here are translations, and as there have been many editions of his work there are almost as many English versions of some of them. I've tried to eliminate the duplicates, but feel free to send mail if you spot some I've missed.
Biography from Wikipedia and Authors' Calendar
Additional quotes from Wikiquote. Wikiquote entries are often "sourced" and may include items longer than those included here, particularly for poets, lyricists, and dramatists.
François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld quotes:
Quotes found : 283 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 19) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Next
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- A great many men's gratitude is nothing but a secret desire to hook in more valuable kindnesses hereafter. permalink
François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld - A man convinced of his own merit will accept misfortune as an honor, for thus can he persuade others, as well as himself, that he is a worthy target for the arrows of fate. permalink
François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld - A man is sometimes as different from himself as he is from others. permalink
François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld - A man may be sharper than another, but not than all others. permalink
François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld - A man who finds no satisfaction in himself, seeks for it in vain elsewhere. permalink
François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld - A man's worth has its season, like fruit. permalink
François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld - 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. permalink
François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld - A true friend is the most precious of all possessions and the one we take the least thought about acquiring. permalink
François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld - A wise man thinks it more advantageous not to join the battle than to win. permalink
François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld - A woman often thinks she regrets the lover, when she only regrets the love. permalink
François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld - Absence abates a moderate passion and intensifies a great one - as the wind blows out a candle but fans fire into flame. permalink
François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld - Maxims and Moral Reflections (1791) - Ah, Hope! what would life be, stripped of thy encouraging smiles, that teach us to look behind the dark clouds of to-day, for the golden beams that are to gild the morrow. permalink
François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld - All the passions make us commit faults; love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones. permalink
François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld - All women are flirts, but some are restrained by shyness, and others by sense. permalink
François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld - Almost all our faults are more pardonable than the methods we resort to to hide them. permalink
François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld
Quotes found : 283 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 19) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Next
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