Francois de La Rochefoucauld

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

“As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish.”

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

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

“If we had no faults of our own, we should not take so much pleasure in noticing those in others.”

“If it were not for the company of fools, a witty man would often be greatly at a loss.”

“We are easily comforted for the misfortunes of our friends, when those misfortunes give us an occasion of expressing our affection and solicitude.”

“There are crimes which become innocent and even glorious through their splendor, number and excess.”

“What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the thing given.”

“We come altogether fresh and raw into the several stages of life, and often find ourselves without experience, despite our years.”

“We are so used to dissembling with others that in time we come to deceive and dissemble with ourselves.”

“Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.”

“Funeral pomp is more for the vanity of the living than for the honor of the dead.”

“It's the height of folly to want to be the only wise one.”

“The accent of a man's native country remains in his mind and his heart, as it does in his speech.”

“Some accidents there are in life that a little folly is necessary to help us out of.”

“The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body; after all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind, and they are in continual danger of breaking the skin and bursting out again.”

“However greatly we distrust the sincerity of those we converse with, yet still we think they tell more truth to us than to anyone else.”

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

“The accent of one's birthplace remains in the mind and in the heart as in one's speech.”