FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Our concern for the loss of our friends is not always from a sense of their worth, but rather of our own need of them and that we have lost some who had a good opinion of us.

What men have called friendship is only a social arrangement, a mutual adjustment of interests, an interchange of services given and received; it is, in sum, simply a business from which those involved propose to derive a steady profit for their own self-love.

How can we expect another to keep our secret if we have been unable to keep it ourselves?

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

Those that have had great passions esteem themselves for the rest of their lives fortunate and unfortunate in being cured of them.

There is no better proof of a man's being truly good than his desiring to be constantly under the observation of good men.

Heat of blood makes young people change their inclinations often, and habit makes old ones keep to theirs a great while.

We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.

I have always been an admirer. I regard the gift of admiration as indispensable if one is to amount to something; I don't know where I would be without it.

We confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones.

Those who occupy their minds with small matters, generally become incapable of greatness.

He who lives without folly isn't so wise as he thinks.

It is a great act of cleverness to be able to conceal one's being clever.

We may seem great in an employment below our worth, but we very often look little in one that is too big for us.

It is almost always a fault of one who loves not to realize when he ceases to be loved.

The intellect is always fooled by the heart.

We all have enough strength to endure the misfortunes of others.

The force we use on ourselves, to prevent ourselves from loving, is often more cruel than the severest treatment at the hands of one loved.

Our actions seem to have their lucky and unlucky stars, to which a great part of that blame and that commendation is due which is given to the actions themselves.

Virtue would go far if vanity did not keep it company.

The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us.

We may sooner be brought to love them that hate us, than them that love us more than we would have them do.

On neither the sun, nor death, can a man look fixedly.

All the passions make us commit faults; love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones.

In friendship as well as love, ignorance very often contributes more to our happiness than knowledge.