Quotes by Moralists

Nothing is so infectious as example.
François de La Rochefoucauld
Life is a tragedy for those who feel and a comedy for those who think.
Jean de La Bruyère
How rare true love maybe, it is less so than true friendship.
François de La Rochefoucauld
We must laugh before we are happy for fear of dying without having laughed at all.
Jean de La Bruyère
The confidence which we have in ourselves gives birth to much of that which we have in others.
François de La Rochefoucauld
One cannot answer for his courage when he has never been in danger.
François de La Rochefoucauld
We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves.
François de La Rochefoucauld
Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.
Jean de La Bruyère
If we have not peace within ourselves it is in vain to seek it from outward sources.
François de La Rochefoucauld
The intellect is always fooled by the heart.
François de La Rochefoucauld
True love is like ghosts which everybody talks about and few have seen.
François de La Rochefoucauld
It is much easier to extinguish a first desire than to satisfy all of those that follow it.
François de La Rochefoucauld
We are never so happy or so unhappy as we think.
François de La Rochefoucauld
In great affairs we ought to apply ourselves less to creating chances than to profiting from those that are offered.
François de La Rochefoucauld
The truest way to be deceived is to think oneself more knowing than others.
François de La Rochefoucauld
If we resist our passions it is more from their weakness than from our strength.
François de La Rochefoucauld
Almost always we are bored by people to whom we ourselves are boring.
François de La Rochefoucauld
We do not wish ardently for what we desire only through reason.
François de La Rochefoucauld
It is with true love as with ghosts. Every one talks of it but few have seen it.
François de La Rochefoucauld
If some persons died and others did not die death would indeed be a terrible affliction.
Jean de La Bruyère
I always say to myself what is the most important thing we can think about at this extraordinary moment.
François de La Rochefoucauld
In love we often doubt what we most believe.
François de La Rochefoucauld
Extreme boredom provides its own antidote.
François de La Rochefoucauld
The very essence of politeness is to take care that by our words and actions we make other people pleased with us as well as with themselves.
Jean de La Bruyère
It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.
François de La Rochefoucauld
The passions are the only orators which always persuade.
François de La Rochefoucauld
We forgive so long as we love.
François de La Rochefoucauld
Great thoughts come from the heart.
Luc de Clapiers
If we had no faults we should not take so much pleasure in noting those of others.
François de La Rochefoucauld
We are often more treacherous through weakness than calculation
François de La Rochefoucauld
There are more defects in temperament than in the mind.
François de La Rochefoucauld
To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.
François de La Rochefoucauld
Those who most obstinately oppose the most widely-held opinions more often do so because of pride than lack of intelligence. They find the best places in the right set already taken, and they do not want back seats.
François de La Rochefoucauld
It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.
François de La Rochefoucauld
Though men pride themselves on their great actions often they are not the result of any great design but of chance.
François de La Rochefoucauld
We should scarcely desire things ardently if we were perfectly acquainted with what we desire.
François de La Rochefoucauld
There are no ugly women there are only women who do not know how to look pretty.
Jean de La Bruyère
Boredom ... causes us to neglect more duties than does interest.
François de La Rochefoucauld
As long as men are liable to die and are desirous to live a physician will be made fun of but he will be well paid.
Jean de La Bruyère
The most exquisite pleasure is giving pleasure to others.
Jean de La Bruyère
True love is like ghosts which many believe in, but few have seen.
François de La Rochefoucauld
A man often runs the risk of throwing away a witticism if he admits that it is his own.
Jean de La Bruyère
Liberality consists less in giving much than in giving at the right moment.
Jean de La Bruyère
We are almost always bored by just those whom we must not find boring.
François de La Rochefoucauld
To establish oneself in the world one has to do all one can to appear established.
François de La Rochefoucauld
True eloquence consists of saying all that should be said and that only.
François de La Rochefoucauld
A pious man is one who would be an atheist if the king were.
Jean de La Bruyère
Perfect courage means doing unwitnessed what we would be capable of with the world looking on.
François de La Rochefoucauld
Friendship is only a reciprocal conciliation of interests.
François de La Rochefoucauld
Before we set our hearts too much upon anything let us examine how happy they are who already possess it.
François de La Rochefoucauld
There are few things we should keenly desire if we really knew what we wanted.
François de La Rochefoucauld
In jealousy there is more of self-love than love.
François de La Rochefoucauld
He who has lived a day has lived an age.
Jean de La Bruyère
It is a great misfortune neither to have enough wit to talk well nor enough judgment to be silent.
Jean de La Bruyère
Two persons cannot long be friends if they cannot forgive each other's little failings.
Jean de La Bruyère
We are much harder on people who betray us in small ways than on people who betray others in great ones.
François de La Rochefoucauld
To achieve great things, we must live as though we were never going to die.
Luc de Clapiers de Vauvenargues
In all aspects of life, we take on a part and an appearance to seem to be what we wish to be--and thus the world is merely composed of actors.
François de La Rochefoucauld
There is no business in the world so troublesome as the pursuit of fame: life is over before you have hardly begun your work.
Jean de La Bruyère
Interest speaks all sorts of tongues and plays all sorts of parts even that of disinterestedness.
François de La Rochefoucauld