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

Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims

François de La Rochefoucauld · Licença: Public domain · Fonte

• 495.--Young men entering life should be either shy or bold; a solemn and sedate manner usually degenerates into impertinence. ¶690
• 496.--Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side. ¶691
• 497.--It is valueless to a woman to be young unless pretty, or to be pretty unless young. ¶692
• 498.--Some persons are so frivolous and fickle that they are as far removed from real defects as from substantial qualities. ¶693
• 499.--We do not usually reckon a woman's first flirtation until she has had a second. ¶694
• 500.--Some people are so self-occupied that when in love they find a mode by which to be engrossed with the passion without being so with the person they love. ¶695
• 501.--Love, though so very agreeable, pleases more by its ways than by itself. ¶696
• 502.--A little wit with good sense bores less in the long run than much wit with ill nature. ¶697
• 503.--Jealousy is the worst of all evils, yet the one that is least pitied by those who cause it. ¶698
• II.--Passions are only the different degrees of the heat or coldness of the blood. (1665, No. 13.) ¶703
• III.--Moderation in good fortune is but apprehension of the shame which follows upon haughtiness, or a fear of losing what we have. (1665, No. 18.) ¶704
• IV.--Moderation is like temperance in eating; we could eat more but we fear to make ourselves ill. (1665, No. 21.) ¶705
• V.--Everybody finds that to abuse in another which he finds worthy of abuse in himself. (1665, No. 33.) ¶706
• VII.--One kind of happiness is to know exactly at what point to be miserable. (1665, No. 53.) ¶708
• VIII.--When we do not find peace of mind (REPOS) in ourselves it is useless to seek it elsewhere. (1665, No. 53.) ¶709
• IX.--One should be able to answer for one's fortune, so as to be able to answer for what we shall do. (1665, No. 70.) ¶710
• X.--Love is to the soul of him who loves, what the soul is to the body which it animates. (1665, No. 77.) ¶711
• XI.--As one is never at liberty to love or to cease from loving, the lover cannot with justice complain of the inconstancy of his mistress, nor she of the fickleness of her lover. (1665, No. 81.) ¶712
• XII.--Justice in those judges who are moderate is but a love of their place. (1665, No. 89.) ¶713
• XIII.--When we are tired of loving we are quite content if our mistress should become faithless, to loose us from our fidelity. (1665, No. 85.) ¶714
• XIV.--The first impulse of joy which we feel at the happiness of our friends arises neither from our natural goodness nor from friendship; it is the result of self-love, which flatters us with being lucky in our own turn, or in reaping something from the good fortune of our friends. (1665, No. 97.) ¶715
• XV.--In the adversity of our best friends we always find something which is not wholly displeasing to us. (1665, No. 99.) ¶716
• See also Chesterfield's defence of this in his 129th letter; "they who know the deception and wickedness of the human heart will not be either romantic or blind enough to deny what Rochefoucauld and Swift have affirmed as a general truth."] ¶718
• XVI.--How shall we hope that another person will keep our secret if we do not keep it ourselves. (1665, No. 100.) ¶719
• {No date or number is given for this maxim} ¶721
• XVIII.--There are none who press so heavily on others as the lazy ones, when they have satisfied their idleness, and wish to appear industrious. (1666, No. 91.) ¶722
• XIX.--The blindness of men is the most dangerous effect of their pride; it seems to nourish and augment it, it deprives us of knowledge of remedies which can solace our miseries and can cure our faults. (1665, No. 102.) ¶723
• XX.--One has never less reason than when one despairs of finding it in others. (1665, No. 103.) ¶724
• XXI.--Philosophers, and Seneca above all, have not diminished crimes by their precepts; they have only used them in the building up of pride. (1665, No. 105.) ¶725
• XXII.--It is a proof of little friendship not to perceive the growing coolness of that of our friends. (1666, No. 97.) ¶726
• XXIII.--The most wise may be so in indifferent and ordinary matters, but they are seldom so in their most serious affairs. (1665, No. 132.) ¶727
• XXIV.--The most subtle folly grows out of the most subtle wisdom. (1665, No. 134.) ¶728
• XXV.--Sobriety is the love of health, or an incapacity to eat much. (1665, No. 135.) ¶729
• XXVI.--We never forget things so well as when we are tired of talking of them. (1665, No. 144.) ¶730
• XXVII.--The praise bestowed upon us is at least useful in rooting us in the practice of virtue. (1665, No. 155.) ¶731
• XXVIII.--Self-love takes care to prevent him whom we flatter from being him who most flatters us. (1665, No. 157.) ¶732
• XXIX.--Men only blame vice and praise virtue from interest. (1665, No. 151.) ¶733
• XXX.--We make no difference in the kinds of anger, although there is that which is light and almost innocent, which arises from warmth of complexion, temperament, and another very criminal, which is, to speak properly, the fury of pride. (1665, No. 159.) ¶734
• XXXI.--Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than the common, but those only who have greater designs. (1665, No. 161.) ¶735
• XXXII.--Kings do with men as with pieces of money; they make them bear what value they will, and one is forced to receive them according to their currency value, and not at their true worth. (1665, No. 165.) ¶736

VoltarSeguinte →Livros de sentenças