Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“The more one loves a mistress, the more one is ready to hate her.”

“No man deserves to be praised for his goodness, who has it not in his power to be wicked. Goodness without that power is generally nothing more than sloth, or an impotence of will.”

“It takes nearly as much ability to know how to profit by good advice as to know how to act for one's self.”

“Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.”

“In love we often doubt what we most believe.”

“We always love those who admire us, but we do not always love those whom we admire.”

“The happiness and misery of men depend no less on temper than fortune.”

“However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship.”

“In most of mankind gratitude is merely a secret hope of further favors.”

“Being a blockhead is sometimes the best security against being cheated by a man of wit.”

“The reason that lovers never weary each other is because they are always talking about themselves.”

“The greatest part of intimate confidences proceed from a desire either to be pitied or admired.”

“We easily forgive our friends those faults that do no affect us ourselves.”

“Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.”

“The sure way to be cheated is to think one's self more cunning than others.”

“Nothing prevents one from appearing natural as the desire to appear natural.”

“The defects of the mind, like those of the face, grow worse with age.”

“We promise in proportion to our hopes, and we deliver in proportion to our fears.”

“The reason why so few people are agreeable in conversation is that each is thinking more about what he intends to say than others are saying.”

“The word virtue is as useful to self-interest as the vices.”