Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

Nothing is so common as to imitate one's enemies, and to use their weapons.

Nothing is more contagious than example, and no man does any exceeding good or exceeding ill but it spawns new deeds of the same kind. The good we imitate through emulation, the ill through the malignity of our nature, which shame keeps locked up, but example sets free.

No living person is sunk so low as not to be imitated by somebody.

There is a contagion in example which few men have sufficient force of mind to resist.

There are follies as catching as contagious disorders.

Example has more followers than reason. We unconsciously imitate what pleases us, and approximate to the characters we most admire.

Being abroad makes you conscious of the whole imitative side of human behavior. The ape in man.

Man's natural character is to imitate; that of the sensitive man is to resemble as closely as possible the person whom he loves. It is only by imitating the vices of others that I have earned my misfortunes.

Human beings all mimic each other.

When one person does something that works, everyone else wants to do it. So it didn't surprise me at all to see people come with different versions of 'American Idol' and a lot of them are exactly the same but with different twists.

Thoughts, like fleas, jump from man to man, but they don't bite everybody.

A man's virtue is best secured by shame, and best improved by emulation in the society of virtuous men.

The ancients called happy those who learned caution from the danger of others...as wax receives its impression from a seal, so the character of human life is shaped by example

...only mastery and sovereignty bring glory, and only slavery brings shame.

Between the period of national honor and complete degeneracy there is usually an interval of national vanity, during which examples of virtue are recounted and admired without being imitated. The Romans were never more proud of their ancestors than when they ceased to resemble them. From being the freest and most high-spirited people in the world, they suddenly fell into the tamest and most abject submission.

When people are free to do as we please, they usually imitate each other.

As humans, we don't know what we should do. We don't have those instincts like God has given animals. We have to see to know where we are going. It is just a natural human emotion to look for people to emulate.

You a role model by way of someone will model after your role. They'll model themselves after what they perceive is success. That doesn't mean they take your morality and virtue seriously. They want what you want, and they're willing to do what you do to get it.

When we do something good, people immediately follow it.

If someone in a powerful position acts in a certain way or expresses a certain view, we implicitly assume that those actions and views are associated with power, and that emulating them may be to our advantage.

He who imitates what is evil always goes beyond the example that is set; on the contrary, he who imitates what is good always falls short.

Each of us is in fact what he is almost exclusively by virtue of his imitative-ness.

Some follies are caught, like contagious diseases.

We are in truth, more than half what we are by imitation. The great point is to choose good models and to study them with care.

Man is an imitative creature.