Francois de La Rochefoucauld Passion Quotations

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

All the passions make us commit faults; love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones.

Jealousy is bred in doubts. When those doubts change into certainties, then the passion either ceases or turns absolute madness.

Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than others, but only those who have greater designs.

In the human heart new passions are forever being born; the overthrow of one almost always means the rise of another.

The passions are the only orators which always persuade.

Those that have had great passions esteem themselves for the rest of their lives fortunate and unfortunate in being cured of them.

If there be a love pure and free from the admixture of our other passions, it is that which lies hidden in the bottom of our heart, and which we know not ourselves.

Passions often produce their contraries: avarice sometimes leads to prodigality, and prodigality to avarice; we are often obstinate through weakness and daring through timidity.

Of all the violent passions, the one that becomes a woman best is love.

Passion very often makes the wisest men fools, and very often too inspires the greatest fools with wit.

The passions often engender their contraries.

Indolence, languid as it is, often masters both passions and virtues.

The health of the soul is as precarious as that of the body; for when we seem secure from passions, we are no less in danger of their infection than we are of falling ill when we appear to be well.

Women can less easily surmount their coquetry than their passions.

We should desire very few things passionately if we did but perfectly know the nature of the things we desire.

Women can more easily conquer their passion than their coquetterie.

Those great and glorious actions that dazzle our eyes with their luster are represented by statesmen as the result of great wisdomand excellent design; whereas, in truth, they are commonly the effects of the humors and passions.

When the soul is ruffled by the remains of one passion, it is more disposed to entertain a new one than when it is entirely curedand at rest from all.

A man often thinks he rules himself, when all the while he is ruled and managed; and while his understanding directs one design, his affections imperceptibly draw him into another.

It is a mighty error to suppose that none but violent and strong passions, such as love and ambition, are able to vanquish the rest. Even idleness, as feeble and languishing as it is, sometimes reigns over them; it usurps the throne and sits paramount over all the designs and actions of our lives, and imperceptibly wastes and destroys all our passions and all our virtues.

Men are often so foolish as to boast and value themselves upon their passions, even those that are most vicious. But envy is a passion so full of cowardice and shame that no one every ever had the confidence to own it.

Men never desire anything very eagerly which they desire only by the dictates of reason.

The heart of man ever finds a constant succession of passions, so that the destroying and pulling down of one proves generally tobe nothing else but the production and the setting up of another.

The passions do very often give birth to others of a nature most contrary to their own. Thus avarice sometimes brings forth prodigality, and prodigality avarice; a man's resolution is very often the effect of levity, and his boldness that of cowardice and fear.

The passions of youth are not more dangerous to health than is the lukewarmness of old age.

Absence cools moderate passions, and inflames violent ones; just as the wind blows out candles, but kindles fires.

Some men are so full of themselves that when they fall in love, they amuse themselves rather with their own passion than with theperson they love.

The health of the soul is something we can be no more sure of than that of the body; and though a man may seem far from the passions, yet he is in as much danger of falling into them as one in a perfect state of health of having a fit of sickness.

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

Absence abates a moderate passion and intensifies a great one - as the wind blows out a candle but fans fire into flame.

In their early passions women are in love with the lover, later they are in love with love.

It is a mistake to imagine, that the violent passions only, such as ambition and love, can triumph over the rest. Idleness, languid as it is, often masters them all; she influences all our designs and actions, and insensibly consumes and destroys both passions and virtues.

In the human heart one generation of passions follows another; from the ashes of one springs the spark of the next.

Passion often makes fools of the wisest men and gives the silliest wisdom.

The pleasure of love is in the loving; and there is more joy in the passion one feels than in that which one inspires.....

It appears that nature has hid at the bottom of our hearts talents and abilities unknown to us. It is only the passions that have the power of bringing them to light, and sometimes give us views more true and more perfect than art could possibly do.

Avarice misapprehends itself almost always. There is no passion which more often will miss its aim, nor upon which the present has so much influence to the prejudice of the future.

No matter how much care we put into hiding our passions under the appearances of devotion and honor, they can always be seen to peer out through these covers.

In the human heart there is a ceaseless birth of passions, so that the destruction of one is almost always the establishment of another.

The duration of our passions is no more dependent on ourselves than the duration of our lives.

We often pride ourselves on even the most criminal passions, but envy is a timid and shamefaced passion we never dare to acknowledge.

The most violent passions sometimes leave us at rest, but vanity agitates us constantly.

All the passions are nothing else than different degrees of heat and cold of the blood.

L'absence diminue les mediocres passions, et augmente les grandes,comme le vent eteint les bougies, et allume le feu. Absence diminishes commonplace passions, and increases great ones, as wind extinguishes candles and kindles fire.

The passions are the only orators that always persuade: they are, as it were, a natural art, the rules of which are infallible; and the simplest man with passion is more persuasive than the most eloquent without it.

However we may conceal our passions under the veil ... there is always some place where they peep out.

The simplest man with passion will be more persuasive than the most eloquent without.

Great and glorious events which dazzle the beholder are represented by politicians as the outcome of grand designs whereas they are usually products of temperaments and passions.

When the heart is still disturbed by the relics of a passion it is proner to take up a new one than when wholly cured.

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

People are often vain of their passions, even of the worst, but envy is a passion so timid and shame-faced that no one ever dare avow her.

The passions possess a certain injustice and self interest which makes it dangerous to follow them, and in reality we should distrust them even when they appear most trustworthy.