Francois duc de La Rochefoucauld

One reason that so few people that can carry on a rational and agreeable conversation is because virtually everyone puts more attention on what they want to say than they do on listening to what others are saying and answering them [accordingly]. [Even] the most clever and polite people are content with only appearing to be attentive… [but in truth], they are wandering from what is said, and really want to return to what they want to say…
The worst way to persuade or please others is to try thus strongly to please ourselves; and some of the greatest charms we can have in conversation come from listening well and answering well. - Francois duc de La Rochefoucauld



As it is the mark of great minds to say many things in a few words, so it is that of little minds to use many words to say nothing. - Francois duc de La Rochefoucauld



The defects of the mind are like the wounds of the body: no matter how much care we take to heal them, the scars remain, and there is always the danger that they will reopen. - Francois duc de La Rochefoucauld



In all aspects of life, we take on a part and an appearance to seem to be what we wish to be [seen as]—and thus the world is merely composed of actors. - Francois duc de La Rochefoucauld



Idiots and lunatics see only their own wit. - Francois duc de La Rochefoucauld



However rare true love is, true friendship is rarer. -Francois duc de La Rochefoucauld



We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it. - Francois duc de La Rochefoucauld



Most things are praised or condemned only because it is fashionable to praise or condemn them. - Francois duc de La Rochefoucauld


One may outwit another, but not all the others. - Francois duc de La Rochefoucauld


We can be more clever than one, but not more clever than all. - Francois duc de La Rochefoucauld



What is commonly called friendship is no more than a partnership; a reciprocal regard for one another's interests, and an exchange of good offices; in a word, a mere traffic, wherein self-love always proposes to be a gainer. - Francois duc de La Rochefoucauld



What seems generosity is often disguised ambition, that despises small to run after greater interests. - Francois duc de La Rochefoucauld



We seldom find people ungrateful so long as we are in a condition to render them service. - Francois duc de La Rochefoucauld



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