Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims — François de La Rochefoucauld

Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims

François de La Rochefoucauld · רישיון: Public domain · מקור

• 294.--We always like those who admire us, we do not always like those whom we admire. ¶456
• 295.--It is well that we know not all our wishes. ¶457
• 296.--It is difficult to love those we do not esteem, but it is no less so to love those whom we esteem much more than ourselves. ¶458
• 297.--Bodily temperaments have a common course and rule which imperceptibly affect our will. They advance in combination, and successively exercise a secret empire over us, so that, without our perceiving it, they become a great part of all our actions. ¶459
• 298.--The gratitude of most men is but a secret desire of receiving greater benefits. ¶460
• 299.--Almost all the world takes pleasure in paying small debts; many people show gratitude for trifling, but there is hardly one who does not show ingratitude for great favours. ¶462
• 300.--There are follies as catching as infections. ¶463
• 301.--Many people despise, but few know how to bestow wealth. ¶464
• 302.--Only in things of small value we usually are bold enough not to trust to appearances. ¶465
• 303.--Whatever good quality may be imputed to us, we ourselves find nothing new in it. ¶466
• 304.--We may forgive those who bore us, we cannot forgive those whom we bore. ¶467
• 305.--Interest which is accused of all our misdeeds often should be praised for our good deeds. ¶468
• 306.--We find very few ungrateful people when we are able to confer favours. ¶469
• 307.--It is as proper to be boastful alone as it is ridiculous to be so in company. ¶470
• 308.--Moderation is made a virtue to limit the ambition of the great; to console ordinary people for their small fortune and equally small ability. ¶471
• 309.--There are persons fated to be fools, who commit follies not only by choice, but who are forced by fortune to do so. ¶472
• 310.--Sometimes there are accidents in our life the skilful extrication from which demands a little folly. ¶473
• 311.--If there be men whose folly has never appeared, it is because it has never been closely looked for. ¶474
• 312.--Lovers are never tired of each other,--they always speak of themselves. ¶475
• 313.--How is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person? ¶476
• 314.--The extreme delight we take in talking of ourselves should warn us that it is not shared by those who listen. ¶478
• 315.--What commonly hinders us from showing the recesses of our heart to our friends, is not the distrust we have of them, but that we have of ourselves. ¶479
• 316.--Weak persons cannot be sincere. ¶480
• 317.--'Tis a small misfortune to oblige an ungrateful man; but it is unbearable to be obliged by a scoundrel. ¶481
• 318.--We may find means to cure a fool of his folly, but there are none to set straight a cross-grained spirit. ¶482
• 319.--If we take the liberty to dwell on their faults we cannot long preserve the feelings we should hold towards our friends and benefactors. ¶483
• 320.--To praise princes for virtues they do not possess is but to reproach them with impunity. ¶484
• 321.--We are nearer loving those who hate us, than those who love us more than we desire. ¶486
• 322.--Those only are despicable who fear to be despised. ¶487
• 323.--Our wisdom is no less at the mercy of Fortune than our goods. ¶488
• 324.--There is more self-love than love in jealousy. ¶489
• 325.--We often comfort ourselves by the weakness of evils, for which reason has not the strength to console us. ¶490
• 326.--Ridicule dishonours more than dishonour itself. ¶491
• 327.--We own to small faults to persuade others that we have not great ones. ¶493
• 328.--Envy is more irreconcilable than hatred. ¶494
• 329.--We believe, sometimes, that we hate flattery --we only dislike the method. ¶495
• 330.--We pardon in the degree that we love. ¶497
• 331.--It is more difficult to be faithful to a mistress when one is happy, than when we are ill-treated by her. ¶498
• 332.--Women do not know all their powers of flirtation. ¶500
• 333.--Women cannot be completely severe unless they hate. ¶501

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