Francois de La Rochefoucauld Clever Quotations

There are but very few men clever enough to know all the mischief they do.

It is a great act of cleverness to be able to conceal one's being clever.

Passion makes idiots of the cleverest men, and makes the biggest idiots clever.

We can be more clever than one, but not more clever than all.

We are not fond of praising, and never praise any one except from interested motives. Praise is a clever, concealed, and delicate flattery, which gratifies in different ways the giver and the receiver. The one takes it as a recompense of his merit, and the other bestows it to display his equity and discernment.

The desire to be thought clever often prevents a man from becoming so.

Passion often makes a fool of the cleverest man and often makes the most foolish men clever

The desire to seem clever often keeps us from being so.

It's easier to know people in general than one person in particular

A clever man should handle his interests so that each will fall in suitable order of their value.

There are no circumstances, however unfortunate, that clever people do not extract some advantage from.

The desire of appearing clever often prevents our becoming so.

There is scarcely any man sufficiently clever to appreciate all the evil he does.

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.

No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does.

The most clever and polite are content with only seeming attentive while we perceive in their mind and eyes that at the very time they are wandering from what is said and desire to return to what they want to say.

A clever man reaps some benefit from the worst catastrophe, and a fool can turn even good luck to his disadvantage.

Passion often renders the most clever man a fool, and sometimes renders the most foolish man clever.