Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

If there were a being in the world whose eyes could look into other people's hearts, very few men or women would be able to face up to it.

Hypocrite reader my fellow my brother!

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

It is a true man's part not to err, but it is also noble of a man to perceive his error.

God knows we are subtle creatures who are more than able to use candour to avoid acknowledging our deceptions of others and ourselves.

I've always believed in people's capacity for goodness. I still believe that people are good. What I'm not so trusting about anymore is their relationship to their own goodness.

Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.

Whenever you do a thing, tho' it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you and act accordingly.

What, pray, does it profit a man to teach others, and to be prating always about virtue, in high-sounding words, if he fails to give heed to his own instructions?

We should often feel ashamed of our best actions if the world could see all the motives which produced them.

I attempt to do my best and do what's right, but that doesn't mean I'm always right.

I have tried if I could reach that great resolution . . . to be honest without a thought of Heaven or Hell.

When calling for authenticity, we need to take seriously the brokenness and sinfulness of the human heart. If to be authentic means to be who we really are or to express what we really feel, then in most cases I’m going to vote for hypocrisy. Our prisons are filled with men and women who acted on their feelings and impulses. If authenticity is about being true to yourself, these individuals should be our models of inspiration.

We're all hypocrites. We all say one thing and do another. But why don't we try to do what we say more than what we don't?

People who are most interested in telling the truth about others are generally the least interested in having the truth told about themselves.

A good man with a good conscience doesn't walk so fast.

I consider myself a fairly ethical individual while I do have a lot of dichotomies within me. We're all victims of our own hypocrisy at times.

Every night I go over what I did in the day, in ethical or moral terms. Have I treated people properly? Did I tell the truth?

Be honest about mistakes. Even if you are afraid of what people think.

Be virtuous and you will be vicious.

To err is human; to admit it, superhuman.

I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

I think it's extremely difficult consistently being a decent human being.

I fear that many a man's good resolutions only need the ordinary fire of daily life to make them melt away. So, too, with fine professions and the boastings of perfection which abound in this age of shams.

I'm not perfect in my walk but I want to do the right thing.