Quotes by Moralists - Page 2

In jealousy there is more of self-love than love
François de La Rochefoucauld
Nobody deserves to be praised for goodness unless he is strong enough to be bad.
François de La Rochefoucauld
Out of difficulties grow miracles.
Jean de La Bruyère
What causes us to like new acquaintances is not so much 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 admired more by those who do not know so much about us.
François de La Rochefoucauld
What men call friendship is no more than a partnership a mutual care of interests an exchange of favors - in a word it is a sort of traffic in which self-love ever proposes to be the gainer.
François de La Rochefoucauld
Those who make the worst use of their time most complain of its brevity.
Jean de La Bruyère
The virtues and the vices are all put in motion by interest.
François de La Rochefoucauld
There is only one kind of love, but there are a thousand different versions.
François de La Rochefoucauld
It is a great misfortune neither to have enough wit to talk well nor enough judgement to be silent.
Jean de La Bruyère
The pleasure of criticizing takes away from us the pleasure of being moved by some very fine things.
Jean de La Bruyère
The unnamed should not be mistaken for the nonexistent.
Jean de La Bruyère
Absence diminishes small loves and increases great ones, as the wind blows out the candle and fans the bonfire.
François de La Rochefoucauld
If poverty is the mother of all crimes, lack of intelligence is their father.
Jean de La Bruyère
A man must have very eminent qualities to hold his own without being polite.
Jean de La Bruyère
It is as proper to have pride in oneself as it is ridiculous to show it to others.
François de La Rochefoucauld
Hypocrisy is a tribute that vice pays to virtue.
François de La Rochefoucauld
When thought is too weak to be simply expressed it's clear proof that it should be rejected.
Luc de Clapiers
Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present which seldom happens to us.
Jean de La Bruyère
We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.
François de La Rochefoucauld
There are no accidents so unlucky from which clever people are not able to reap some advantage and none so lucky that the foolish are not able to turn them to their own disadvantage.
François de La Rochefoucauld
A modest man never talks of himself.
Jean de La Bruyère
Nothing but courage can guide life.
Luc de Clapiers de Vauvenargues
No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.
François de La Rochefoucauld
He who lives without folly is not as wise as he may think.
François de La Rochefoucauld
A true friend is the greatest of all blessings and that which we take the least care of all to acquire.
François de La Rochefoucauld
87.—Men would not live long in society were they not the dupes of each other. [A maxim, adds Aimé Martin, "Which may enter into the code of a vulgar rogue, but one is astonished to find it in a moral treatise." Yet we have scriptural authority for it: "Deceiving and being deceived."—2 TIM. iii. 13.]
François de La Rochefoucauld
Neither the sun nor death can be looked at steadily.
François de La Rochefoucauld
The prospect of being pleased tomorrow will never console me for the boredom of today.
François de La Rochefoucauld
Nobody deserves to be praised for goodness unless he is strong enough to be bad, for any other goodness is usually merely inertia or lack of will-power
François de La Rochefoucauld
Hope is the last thing that dies in man.
François de La Rochefoucauld
A man's happiness or unhappiness depends as much on his temperament as on his destiny.
François de La Rochefoucauld
We often forgive those who bore us but can't forgive those whom we bore.
François de La Rochefoucauld
The pleasure of criticism takes away from us the pleasure of being deeply moved by very fine things.
Jean de La Bruyère
The nearer we come to great men the more clearly we see that they are only men. They rarely seem great to their valets.
Jean de La Bruyère
Passion often makes fools of the wisest men and gives the silliest wisdom.
François de La Rochefoucauld
There are certain people who so ardently and passionately desire a thing that from dread of losing it they leave nothing undone to make them lose it.
Jean de La Bruyère
There are but two ways of rising in the world: either by one's own industry or profiting by the foolishness of others.
Jean de La Bruyère
Everyone complains of his memory, and no one complains of his judgment.
François de La Rochefoucauld
One forgives to the degree that one loves.
François de La Rochefoucauld
We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.
François de La Rochefoucauld
A man who finds no satisfaction in himself seeks for it in vain elsewhere.
François de La Rochefoucauld
A weakling is incapable of sincerity.
François de La Rochefoucauld
There are bad people who would be less dangerous if they were quite devoid of goodness.
François de La Rochefoucauld
True love is like ghosts, which everybody talks about and few have seen.
François de La Rochefoucauld
Passion often makes a madman of the cleverest man, and renders the greatest fools clever.
François de La Rochefoucauld
Happiness is in the taste and not in the things themselves we are happy from possessing what we like not from possessing what others like.
François de La Rochefoucauld
One is never fortunate or as unfortunate as one imagines.
François de La Rochefoucauld
Reason alone is insufficient to make us enthusiastic in any matter.
François de La Rochefoucauld
It is easier to understand mankind in general than any individual man.
François de La Rochefoucauld
When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
François de La Rochefoucauld
Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.
François de La Rochefoucauld