Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

Plato said that virtue has no master. If a person does not honor this principle and rejoice in it, but is purchasable for money, he creates many masters for himself.

Golf is like solitaire. When you cheat, you only cheat yourself.

There's no credit in not doing what you don't want to do. There's no virtue in not falling, when you're not tempted.

When you're on the side of the angels, it's easier to stretch the truth.

The most virtuous are those who content themselves with being virtuous without seeking to appear so.

One never knows whether people have principles on principle or whether for their own personal satisfaction.

I really wanted to be nasty and mean and bad. It's so much easier than being the good girl.

The worst education which teaches self-denial, is better than the best which teaches everything else, and not that.

If I wanted to do wrong, I could not.

Modesty is the color of virtue.

The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.

I didn't want to be greedy. It's a mark of bad character and I always believed that pigs go the slaughterhouse.

The object of the superior man is truth.

Reading a novel in which all characters illustrate patience, hard work, chastity, and delayed gratification could be a pretty dull experience.

Man is most happy, when his own actions are arguments and examples of his virtue.

Moral character has now some influence in our elections, but not that place which it deserves. The law of public opinion excludes confirmed sots, and persons judicially convicted of high crimes and misdemeanors against the State; but it ought to render the election of all profane swearers, notorious Sabbath breakers, seducers, slanderers, prodigals and riotous persons, as well as the advocates of dueling, impracticable.

Reform must come from within and not from without. You cannot legislate for virtue.

Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.

Even cynical, selfish people will realize, one way or the other, that it's not in their self-interest to act in self-destructive ways.

Teach him to deny himself.

We aren't, as human beings, very good at acting in our best interest.

Me, myself, personally, I like to keep myself private. I have never said I am a paragon of virtue, a model of morality. I simply do what I do.

The intimate contest for self-command never ends, and lifetime happiness requires finding the right balance between present impulses and future well-being.

Moderation is a virtue only in those who are thought to have an alternative.

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