There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune; it is a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for great things; it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselves. Francois de La Rochefoucauld Great
Flattery is a kind of bad money, to which our vanity gives us currency. Francois de La Rochefoucauld Money
Jealousy lives upon doubts. It becomes madness or ceases entirely as soon as we pass from doubt to certainty. Francois de La Rochefoucauld Jealousy
A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire. Francois de La Rochefoucauld Friendship
We have no patience with other people's vanity because it is offensive to our own. Francois de La Rochefoucauld Patience
If we resist our passions, it is more due to their weakness than our strength. Francois de La Rochefoucauld Strength
Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them. Francois de La Rochefoucauld Wisdom
He is not to pass for a man of reason who stumbles upon reason by chance but he who knows it and can judge it and has a true taste for it. Francois de La Rochefoucauld Chance
Philosophy finds it an easy matter to vanquish past and future evils, but the present are commonly too hard for it. Francois de La Rochefoucauld Future
Hope, deceiving as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route. Francois de La Rochefoucauld Hope
Passion makes idiots of the cleverest men, and makes the biggest idiots clever. Francois de La Rochefoucauld Men
Heat of blood makes young people change their inclinations often, and habit makes old ones keep to theirs a great while. Francois de La Rochefoucauld Change
What makes the pain we feel from shame and jealousy so cutting is that vanity can give us no assistance in bearing them. Francois de La Rochefoucauld Jealousy
In friendship as well as love, ignorance very often contributes more to our happiness than knowledge. Francois de La Rochefoucauld Friendship
What men have called friendship is only a social arrangement, a mutual adjustment of interests, an interchange of services given and received; it is, in sum, simply a business from which those involved propose to derive a steady profit for their own self-love. Francois de La Rochefoucauld Business