We are almost always bored by just those whom we must not find boring. — François de La Rochefoucauld
If a man doesn’t find ease in himself, ’tis in vain to seek it elsewhere. — François de La Rochefoucauld
The extreme delight we experience in talking about ourselves should warn us — François de La Rochefoucauld
There is a sort of love whose very excessiveness prevents the lover’s being jealous. — François de La Rochefoucauld
To establish oneself in the world, one does all one can to seem established there already. — François de La Rochefoucauld
We frequently are troublesome to others, when we think it impossible for us ever to be so. — François de La Rochefoucauld
Passion often makes fools of the wisest men and gives the silliest wisdom. — François de La Rochefoucauld
The heat of youth is not more opposed to safety than the coldness of age. — François de La Rochefoucauld
Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones just as the wind blows out a candle and fans a fire. — François de La Rochefoucauld
We promise according to our hopes, and perform according to our fears. — François de La Rochefoucauld
It takes nearly as much ability to know how to profit by good advice as to know how to act for one’s self. — François de La Rochefoucauld
Old men are fond of giving advice to console themselves for being no longer in a position to give bad examples. — François de La Rochefoucauld
Old men delight in giving good advice as a consolation for the fact that they can no longer set bad examples. — François de La Rochefoucauld
Old people love to give good advice; it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example. — François de La Rochefoucauld
Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example. — François de La Rochefoucauld
I have always been an admirer. I regard the gift of admiration as indispensable if one is to amount to something — François de La Rochefoucauld
Age is a tyrant who forbids at the penalty of life all the pleasures of youth. — François de La Rochefoucauld
Old men like to give good advice in order to console themselves for not being any longer able to set bad examples. — François de La Rochefoucauld
We would often be ashamed of our finest actions if the world understood all the motives which produced them. — François de La Rochefoucauld
Sometimes accidents happen in life from which we have need of a little madness to extricate ourselves successfully. — François de La Rochefoucauld
Absence weakens mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind blows out candles and kindles fires. — François de La Rochefoucauld