Francois de La Rochefoucauld People Quotations

Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them.

We seldom find people ungrateful so long as it is thought we can serve them.

There are bad people who would be less dangerous if they were quite devoid of goodness.

People's personalities, like buildings, have various facades, some pleasant to view, some not.

Self-interest makes some people blind, and others sharp-sighted.

Old people love to give good advice; it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example.

Most people know no other way of judging men's worth but by the vogue they are in, or the fortunes they have met with.

We have no patience with other people's vanity because it is offensive to our own.

Heat of blood makes young people change their inclinations often, and habit makes old ones keep to theirs a great while.

People always complain about their memories, never about their minds.

We confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones.

Some people displease with merit, and others' very faults and defects are pleasing.

Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms inside your head, and people in them, acting. People you know, yet can't quite name.

The one thing people are the most liberal with, is their advice.

Whatever good things people say of us, they tell us nothing new.

We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones.

The dullness of certain people is sometimes a sufficient security against the attack of an artful man.

The clemency of Princes is often but policy to win the affections of the people.

The moderation of fortunate people comes from the calm which good fortune gives to their tempers.

There are certain people fated to be fools; they not only commit follies by choice, but are even constrained to do so by fortune.

Interest blinds some people, and enlightens others.

There are people who, like new songs, are in vogue only for a time.

The generality of friends puts us out of conceit with friendship; just as the generality of religious people puts us out of conceit with religion.

Nothing is more ridiculous in old people that were once good-looking, than to forget that they are not so still.

He that fancies such a sufficiency in himself that he can live without all the world is greatly mistaken; but he that imagines himself so necessary that other people cannot live without him is a great deal more mistaken.

Generally speaking, we would make a good bargain by renouncing all the good that people say of us, upon condition they would say no ill.

Very few people are acquainted with death. They undergo it, commonly, not so much out of resolution as custom and insensitivity; and most men die because they cannot help it.

There are people who would never have been in love, had they never heard love spoken of.

There are some people upon whom their very faults and failings sit gracefully; and there are others whose very excellencies and accomplishments do not become them.

Fearlessness is a more than ordinary strength of mind, which raises the soul above the troubles, disorders, and emotions which theprospect of great dangers are used to produce. And by this inward strength it is that heroes preserve themselves in a calm and quiet state, and enjoy a presence of mind and the free use of their reason in the midst of those terrible accidents that amaze and confound other people.

The best way to rise in society is to use all possible means of persuading people that one has already risen in society.

Some people are so extremely whiffling and inconsiderable that they are as far from any real faults as from substantial virtues.

Our own distrust gives a fair pretence for the knavery of other people.

We are always bored by the very people by whom it is vital not to be bored.

Loyalty is in most people only a ruse used by self-interest to attract confidence.

Plenty of people want to be pious, but no one yearns to be humble.

There are few people more convinced of their own genius than those who complain of how stupid they are.

There are few people who would not be ashamed of being loved when they love no longer.

The moderation of people in prosperity is the effect of a smooth and composed temper, owing to the calm of their good fortune.

There are some people who would never have fallen in love if they had not heard there was such a thing.

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

We think very few people sensible, except those who are of our opinion.

People are more slanderous from vanity than from malice.

What renders other people's vanity insufferable is that it wounds our own.

There are people who in spite of their merit disgust us and others who please us in spite of their faults.

Honest people will respect us for our merit: the public, for our luck.

Sincerity is an openness of heart; we find it in very few people; what we usually see is only an artful dissimulation to win the confidence of others.

Moderation in people who are contented comes from that calm that good fortune lends to their spirit.

Weak people cannot be sincere.

Some people are like popular songs that you only sing for a short time.

Old people are fond of giving good advice; it consoles them for no longer being capable of setting a bad example.

People would never fall in love if they hadn't heard love talked about.

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

Most people judge men by their success or their good fortune.

In order to succeed in the world people do their upmost to appear successful.

What makes us so bitter against people who outwit us is that they think themselves cleverer than we are.

There are few people who are more often in the wrong than those who cannot endure to be so.

One thing which makes us find so few people who appear reasonable and agreeable in conversation is, that there is scarcely any one who does not think more of what he is about to say than of answering precisely what is said to him.

Happy people rarely correct their faults; they consider themselves vindicated, since fortune endorses their evil ways.

It is no tragedy to do ungrateful people favors, but it is unbearable to be indebted to a scoundrel.

Tastes in young people are changed by natural impetuosity, and in the aged are preserved by habit.

Some weak people are so sensible of their weakness as to be able to make a good use of it.

Gratitude is like the good faith of traders: it maintains commerce, and we often pay, not because it is just to discharge our debts, but that we may more readily find people to trust us.

Ability wins us the esteem of the true men; luck, that of the people.

Some people resemble ballads which are only sung for a certain time.

People would not long remain in social life if they were not the dupes of each other.

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.

We bear, all of us, the misfortunes of other people with heroic constancy.

In the presence of some people we inevitably depart From ourselves: we are inaccurate, we say things we do not feel, And talk nonsense. When we get home we are conscious that we Have made fools of ourselves. Never go near these people.

We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us.

Many people despise wealth, but few know how to give it away.

We are much harder on people who betray us in small ways than on people who betray others in great ones.

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.

Everyone takes pleasure in returning small obligations, many people acknowledge moderate ones; but there are only a scarce few who do not pay great ones with ingratitude.