Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

The hardest tumble a man can make is to fall over his own bluff.

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

He who says he hates every kind of flattery, and says it in earnest, certainly does not yet know every kind of flattery.

With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.

What hypocrites we seem to be whenever we talk of ourselves! Our words sound so humble, while our hearts are so proud.

Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them.

Many a peacock hides his peacock tail from all eyes--and calls it his pride.

An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie, for an excuse is a lie guarded.

In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.

There are two kinds of egotists: Those who admit it, and the rest of us.

Once you start lying, you get kind of comfortable. You start believing it. Especially if you truly believe you didn't really cheat because you were doing what everybody else was doing.

The truth is, narratives of self-justification burble beneath more of our relationships and endeavors than we would care to admit.

I'm not conceited. Conceit is a fault and I have no faults.

Affectation is a very good word when someone does not wish to confess to what he would none the less like to believe of himself.

If the best man's faults were written on his forehead, he would draw his hat over his eyes.

False modesty can be worse than arrogance.

We ought to see far enough into a hypocrite to see even his sincerity.

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant.

The longer I am out of office, the more infallible I appear to myself.

All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.

Pride works frequently under a dense mask, and will often assume the garb of humility.

We all lie to each other, present some sort of front.

Those are most desirous of honor and glory who cry out the loudest of its abuse and the vanity of the world.

Man is very vain; he likes to feel that he is responsible for all the favorable things that happen, and he is innocent of all the unfavorable happenings

The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause.