Quotes by Moralists

We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.

François de La Rochefoucauld

The unnamed should not be mistaken for the nonexistent.

Jean de La Bruyère

Almost always we are bored by people to whom we ourselves are boring.

François de La Rochefoucauld

The intellect is always fooled by the heart.

François de La Rochefoucauld

Friendship is only a reciprocal conciliation of interests.

François de La Rochefoucauld

It is a great misfortune neither to have enough wit to talk well nor enough judgment to be silent.

Jean de La Bruyère

To achieve great things, we must live as though we were never going to die.

Luc de Clapiers de Vauvenargues

One cannot answer for his courage when he has never been in danger.

François de La Rochefoucauld

No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.

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

We are never so happy or so unhappy as we think.

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

He who lives without folly is not as wise as he may think.

François de La Rochefoucauld

If we have not peace within ourselves it is in vain to seek it from outward sources.

François de La Rochefoucauld

A weakling is incapable of sincerity.

François de La Rochefoucauld

We are often more treacherous through weakness than calculation

François de La Rochefoucauld

There is only one kind of love, but there are a thousand different versions.

François de La Rochefoucauld

A pious man is one who would be an atheist if the king were.

Jean de La Bruyère

We do not wish ardently for what we desire only through reason.

François de La Rochefoucauld

One is never fortunate or as unfortunate as one imagines.

François de La Rochefoucauld