Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

We are never either so fortunate or so misfortunate as we imagine.

We exaggerate misfortune and happiness alike. We are never as bad off or as happy as we say we are.

Pray look better, Sir... those things yonder are no giants, but windmills.

The world is cynical and sarcastic, but that doesn't mean that that's always the truth.

Some people only look at the good stuff and some people only look at the bad stuff.

Anyone who thinks my life is cupcakes is all wrong.

Things are NEVER what they seem, Pa, I thought. I used to think they were, but I was wrong or stupid or blind or something. Old folks are forever complaining about their failing eyesight, but I think your vision gets better as you get older. Mine surely was.

Misunderstanding is my cornerstone. It's everyone's, come to think of it. Illusions mistaken for truth are the pavement under our feet.

Repeat, over and over again, in case anyone forgets it or believes the contrary, that we do not live in the best of all possible worlds.

Your mistake was not in imagining things you could not know—that is, after all, what imagination is for. Rather, your mistake was in unthinkingly treating what you imagined as though it were an accurate representation of the facts.

The lucky person passes for a genius.

I've always talked to players about perception and reality. I don't worry about perception. There may be some of that, that people want to attach to a good name, but the reality is that some good things can happen.

Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.

I'm always being realistic.

It's not only imagination, it's the distortion of the vision. You suddenly think, This person is idealistic, this person is strong, this person has dreams, when you know better most of the time. You put what you want to see on people.

The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true.

When people look at me outside, they think, 'She's so lucky,' but no one's exempt from tragedy.

Optimism means better than reality; pessimism means worse than reality. I'm a realist.

Living most of the time in a world created mostly in one's head, does not make for an easy passage in the real world.

Things are not always as they seem; the first appearance deceives many.

What passes for optimism is most often the effect of an intellectual error.

The land of literature is a fairy land to those who view it at a distance, but, like all other landscapes, the charm fades on a nearer approach, and the thorns and briars become visible.

The joys we expect are not so bright, nor the troubles so dark as we fancy they will be.

Readers regularly ask what can go wrong but almost never what could positively surprise.

I'm a realist.