Francois de La Rochefoucauld. The best aphorisms
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Francois VI De La Rochefoucauld , Duke de La Rochefoucauld (French Francois VI, Duc De La Rochefoucauld) (September 15, 1613, Paris - March 17, 1680, Paris) The famous French writer and moral philosopher, belonged to the southern French family of La Rochefoucauld. Activist in the wars of the Fronde. During his father's lifetime (until 1650), he bore the title of courtesy Prince de Marcillac. Great-grandson of that Francois de La Rochefoucauld who was killed on the night of St. Bartholomew. The writer’s main work is “Maximes,” a collection of aphorisms that make up an integral code of everyday philosophy. The first edition of Maxim was published anonymously in 1665. Five editions, each subsequent of which was supplemented by the author, appeared during La Rochefoucauld's lifetime.
Selected phrases of François de La Rochefoucauld
We cannot love again those whom we once truly fell out of love.
The one who has fallen out of love is usually his own fault for not noticing it in time.
True love is like a ghost: everyone talks about it, but few have seen it.
Having become completely bored, we stop being bored.
It is easier for us to love those who hate us than those who love us more than we would like.
As long as people love, they forgive.
Anyone who thinks that they can do without others is greatly mistaken. But the one who thinks that others cannot do without him is even more mistaken.
There is no surer way to kindle passion in another than to keep the cold yourself.
There is only one love, but there are thousands of counterfeits.
People of small minds are sensitive to petty insults; people of great intelligence notice everything and are not offended by anything.
Other shortcomings, if used skillfully, shine brighter than any advantages.
When people no longer love each other, it is difficult for them to find a reason to separate.
The surest way to be deceived is to consider yourself more cunning than others.
While smart people are able to express a lot in a few words, limited people, on the contrary, have the ability to talk a lot - and say nothing.
Separation weakens a slight infatuation, but intensifies a greater passion, just as the wind extinguishes a candle, but fans the fire.
Loyalty, which can be maintained only at the cost of great effort, is no better than betrayal.
Different
The beginning and end of love have the same sign: those who love are uncomfortable being alone.
It's better to laugh without being happy than to die without laughing.
Only those who deserve it are afraid of contempt.
Almost all decent women are hidden treasures that no one found just because no one was looking.
Most decent women are hidden treasures that are intact only because no one has yet looked for them.
Nothing interferes with naturalness more than the desire to appear natural.
The wind blows out the candle, but fans the fire.
Sometimes beautiful creations are more attractive when they are imperfect than when they are too complete.
Before you strongly desire something, you should inquire whether the current owner of what you want is very happy.
Love covers with its name the most diverse human relationships, supposedly connected with it, although in fact it participates in them no more than rain in the events taking place in Venice.
It is not enough to have outstanding qualities, you also need to be able to use them.
Many despise life's blessings, but almost no one is able to share them.
Everyone loves to solve others, but no one likes to be solved.
Where there is hope, there is also fear: fear is always full of hope, hope is always full of fear.
How natural and at the same time how deceptive is a person’s belief that he is loved!
He who is too zealous in small things usually becomes incapable of great things.
We are afraid of everything, as mortals should be, and we want everything, as if we had been awarded immortality.
It is incomparably easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy everything.
Grace is to the body what common sense is to the mind.
Most women give up not because their passion is strong, but because their weakness is great. This is why enterprising men are usually so successful, even though they are by no means the most attractive.
A woman in love would rather forgive a major indiscretion than a small infidelity.
We always love those who admire us, but we do not always love those whom we admire.
Those who love very much do not notice for a long time that they are no longer loved.
The one who is cured of love first is always cured more completely.
Old age is hell for women.
Loyalty, which can be maintained only at the cost of great effort, is no better than betrayal.
Prudence and love are not made for each other: as love increases, prudence decreases.
In love, deception almost always goes further than mistrust.
In love adventures there is everything except love.
It is easier for a woman to overcome her passion than her coquetry.
Women are not aware of the vastness of their coquetry.
When a woman falls in love for the first time, she loves her lover; in the future she loves only love.
The only reason lovers never get bored with each other is because they talk about themselves all the time.
The people we love almost always have more power over our soul than we ourselves.
There are few women in the world whose dignity would outlive their beauty.
You can find women who have never had lovers; but it is difficult to find those who have only one.
Unyielding severity of behavior is contrary to female nature.
There are no people who, having stopped loving, would not begin to be ashamed of their past love.
The charm of newness in love is like the blossoming of fruit trees: it quickly fades and never returns.
Sometimes it is easier to tolerate the deception of someone you love than to hear the whole truth from him.
The happiness of love lies in loving; People are happier when they experience passion themselves than when it is inspired.
There are situations in life that can only be extricated with a fair amount of recklessness.
In great things one must try not so much to create events as to take advantage of those that present themselves.
In serious matters, one should be concerned not so much about creating favorable opportunities as about not missing them.
Tastes change as often as inclinations rarely change.
The qualities that people possess are not as funny as those that they claim to have.
The basis of so-called generosity is usually vanity, which is dearer to us than everything we give.
In everyday life, our shortcomings sometimes seem more attractive than our advantages.
The highest virtue is to do in solitude what men dare to do only in the presence of many witnesses.
The longevity of our passions is no more dependent on us than the longevity of life.
If you want to please others, you need to talk about what they love and what touches them, avoid arguing about things they don’t care about, rarely ask questions and never give reason to think that you are smarter.
The desire to arouse pity or admiration is what often forms the basis of our frankness.
Evil, like good, has its heroes.
Some people repel, despite all their merits, while others attract, despite all their shortcomings.
Only people with a strong character can be truly gentle; for the rest, apparent softness is most often just weakness, which easily turns into embitterment.
How few old people in the world know the art of being old!
As soon as a fool praises us, he no longer seems so stupid to us.
The one who doesn't like anyone is much more unhappy than the one who doesn't like anyone.
It is much more useful to study not books, but people.
Narrow-minded people usually condemn everything that goes beyond their understanding.
People are never immeasurably good or immeasurably bad.
Can a person say with confidence what he wants in the future if he is not able to understand what he wants now?
A wise person understands that it is easier to forbid oneself from a hobby than to fight it later.
We try less to be happy than to appear so.
We rarely fully understand what we really want.
What gives us joy is not what surrounds us, but our attitude towards the environment, and we are happy when we have what we love, and not what others consider worthy of love.
We are almost always bored with those who are bored with us.
There are few things in this world that are unattainable; If we had more persistence, we could find a way to almost any goal.
Mockery is often a sign of poverty of mind: it comes to the rescue when good arguments are lacking.
Peace cannot be found anywhere for those who have not found it in themselves.
No amount of pretense will help to hide love for a long time when it is there, or to pretend it when it is not there.
Neither the sun nor death should be looked at point-blank.
Fate should be treated like health: when it favors us, enjoy it, and when it begins to act up, wait patiently, without resorting to strong means unless absolutely necessary.
Old people love to give good advice because they are no longer capable of setting bad examples.
Only by knowing how to listen and respond can you be a good conversationalist.
Human virtues, like fruits, have their season.
Physical labor helps to forget about moral suffering.
A person is never as unhappy as he thinks, or as happy as he wants.
As rare as true love is, true friendship is even rarer.
We are tormented not so much by the thirst for happiness as by the desire to be known as lucky.
Moderation in life is similar to abstinence in food: I would eat more, but I’m afraid of getting sick.
Democracy dies not because of weak laws, but because of weak democrats.
that they draw it not from hope for a better life, but from their own fearlessness. There is a huge difference between a persistent acceptance of death and contempt for it: the first is quite common, but the second, in my opinion, is never sincere. True, many convincing treatises were written in which it was proved that death is not at all terrible; the weakest men, just like the most glorious heroes, have furnished thousands of famous examples to confirm this view. I am convinced, however, that it has never been shared by any sane person. The persistence of adherents of this view in trying to instill it in others and themselves suggests that this is not an easy task. You can have an aversion to life for some reason, but you cannot despise death. Even people who voluntarily condemn themselves to it do not consider death such a small thing; on the contrary, they, like everyone else, fear and sometimes even reject her if she comes to them on a different path than the one they have chosen for her. The hesitation to which the courage of the most valiant people is subject is explained precisely by the fact that death is not always pictured to their imagination with the same vividness. The whole point is that they despise death until they have comprehended it, but, having comprehended it, they succumb to fear. We should avoid thinking about her and everything that surrounds her in every possible way, otherwise she will seem to us the greatest disaster. The bravest and most intelligent people are those who, under any plausible pretext, try not to think about death. Anyone who has had the chance to know her for who she really is understands that she is terrible. The only source of perseverance for philosophers of all times was the inevitability of death. They considered it necessary to willingly go where they could not help but go, and, being unable to preserve their lives forever, they tried with all their might to at least perpetuate their glory and save everything that was possible from ruin. Let us limit ourselves to the fact that for the sake of preserving our dignity, we will not even admit to ourselves that we are thinking about death and will place all our hopes on the vigor of our spirit, and not on shaky reasoning that we should approach it fearlessly. The desire to gain glory by dying steadfastly, consoling thoughts about the sadness of others, the hope of leaving behind a good name, the confidence of liberation from life's hardships and the whims of fate - all these are not bad means, but none of them can be considered reliable. They are no more useful than a wooden fence for soldiers who need to cross a field under enemy fire. While the fence is far away, people think that it can protect them, but as they approach it, they begin to understand that this protection is fragile. It would be too arrogant of us to think that death, even close up, will seem to us the same as we saw it from afar, and that our feelings, whose name is weakness, are sufficiently tempered to allow us to pass without fear through the most difficult of all trials. In the same way, only those who do not understand it can count on selfishness: it is not capable of making us take lightly an event that brings death to us. Finally, the mind, in which many hope to find support, is too weak for us to rely on when facing death. On the contrary, he especially often betrays us and, instead of teaching us contempt for death, brightly illuminates everything that is terrible and repulsive in it. The only thing he can do is to advise us to turn our eyes away from her and focus them on something else. Cato and Brutus turned to lofty thoughts, and not so long ago a certain lackey was content to dance on the very scaffold where he was to be wheeled. Despite the fact that the methods are different, the result is the same. Although the difference between great people and ordinary people is enormous, both, as is clear from many examples, often accept death in the same way. However, there is a difference: among great people, contempt for death is caused by their blinding love of glory, and among simple people - by limitation, which does not allow them to comprehend the full depth of the misfortune that awaits them and gives them the opportunity to think about things outside of themselves.
505. The gifts with which God has endowed people are as diverse as the trees with which he adorned the earth, and each has special properties and bears only its own fruits. That is why the best pear tree will never bear even crappy apples, and the most gifted person gives in to a task that, although mediocre, is given only to those who are capable of this task. And therefore, composing aphorisms without at least a little talent for this kind of activity is no less ridiculous than expecting tulle papas to bloom in a garden bed where no bulbs are planted.
506. There are so many varieties of vanity that it’s not worth counting.
507. The light is full of peas that mock the beans.
508. He who values too highly the nobility of his origin does not value enough the deeds that once formed his basis.
509. As punishment for original sin, God allowed man to create an idol out of selfishness, so that it would torment him on all paths of life.
510. Self-interest is the soul of our consciousness: just as a body, devoid of a soul, does not see, does not hear, does not recognize, does not feel and does not move, so consciousness, separated, if it is permissible to use such an expression, from self-interest, does not see, does not hears, does not feel and does not act. That is why a person who, in the name of his own benefit, wanders the seas and lands, suddenly seems to become numb as soon as the conversation turns to the benefit of his neighbor; That’s why those to whom we tell about our affairs suddenly fall into a slumber and seem to fly off into another world, and just as suddenly wake up as soon as they sense something in our story that even remotely affects them. So it turns out that our interlocutor either loses consciousness or comes to, depending on whether the matter is for his benefit or, on the contrary, has nothing to do with him.
511. We are afraid of everything, as befits mortals, and we want everything, as if we had been awarded immortality.
512. Sometimes it seems that the devil himself came up with the idea of placing laziness on the boundaries of our virtues.
513. We are therefore ready to believe any stories about the shortcomings of our neighbors, because it is easiest to believe what we want.
514. Only complete confidence in what we feared most of all can cure jealousy, because with it comes the end of either our love or life; Needless to say, the medicine is cruel, but less cruel than mistrust and suspicion.
515. Where there is hope, there is also fear: fear is always full of hope, hope is always full of fear.
516. We should not be offended by people who have hidden the truth from us: we ourselves constantly hide it from ourselves.
517. We most often misjudge maxims that prove the falsity of human virtues, because our own virtues always seem true to us.
518. Devotion to those in power is only another guise of selfishness.
519. Where the end of good is, there is the beginning of evil, and where the end of evil is, there is the beginning of good.
520. Philosophers condemn wealth only because we manage it poorly. It is up to us alone to acquire and put it to use, without serving vice. Instead of using wealth to support and feed evil deeds, as firewood is used to feed a fire, we could give it to the service of virtues, thereby giving them both shine and attractiveness.
521. The collapse of all a person’s hopes is pleasant to both his friends and his enemies.
522. Since the happiest person in this world is the one who is content with little, then those in power and those who are ambitious should be considered the most unhappy people, because for happiness they need a myriad of goods.
523. Man today is not the same as he was created, and here is the most convincing proof of this: the more intelligent he becomes, the more ashamed in his soul of the extravagance, baseness and depravity of his feelings and inclinations.
524. Sentences that expose the human heart cause such indignation because people are afraid to appear before the light in all their nakedness.
525. The people we love almost always have more power over our soul than we ourselves.
526. We often stigmatize the shortcomings of others, but rarely, using their example, correct our own.
527. Man is so pitiful that, having devoted himself to the sole goal of satisfying his passions, he constantly complains about their tyranny; not wanting to endure their oppression, he at the same time does not want to make an effort to throw it off; hating passions, he no less hates the medicines that heal them; rebelling against the torments of the disease, he also rebels against the hardships of treatment.
528. When we are happy or sad, our feelings are proportional not so much to the successes or misfortunes that befall us, but to our ability to feel.
529. Cunning is a sign of a narrow mind.
530. We lavish praise only in order to later benefit from it.
531. Human passions are just different inclinations of human selfishness.
532. Having become completely bored, we stop being bored.
533. People most often praise or scold that which is customary to praise or scold.
534. Many people claim piety, but no one is attracted to humility.
535. Physical labor helps to forget about moral suffering; therefore the poor are happy people.
536. Only those who do not notify anyone about it expose themselves to true self-flagellation; otherwise everything is made easier by vanity.
537. Humility is an altar for our sacrifices pleasing to God.
538. A wise man is happy, content with little, but for a fool nothing is enough; that's why almost all people are unhappy.
539. We are tormented not so much by the thirst for happiness as by the desire to be known as lucky.
540. It is easier to kill a desire in the bud than to later satisfy all the desires born of it.
541. A clear mind gives to the soul what health gives to the body.
542. Since the great ones of this world cannot give a person either physical health or peace of mind, he always pays for all their benefits at too high a price.
543. Before you strongly desire something, you should inquire whether the current owner of what you want is very happy.
544. A true friend is the greatest of earthly blessings, although it is precisely this blessing that we least pursue.
545. Lovers begin to see the shortcomings of their mistresses only when their infatuation comes to an end.
546. Prudence and love are not created for each other: as love grows, prudence decreases.
547. A jealous wife is sometimes even pleasant to her husband: at least he hears conversations about the object of his love all the time.
548. What pity is worthy of a woman who truly loves and, moreover, is virtuous!
549. A wise person understands that it is better to forbid oneself from a hobby than to fight it later.
550. It is much more useful to study not books, but people.
551. Usually happiness comes to the happy, and misfortune to the unhappy.
552. A decent woman is a treasure hidden from everyone; Having found it, a reasonable person will not boast about it.
553. He who loves very much does not notice for a long time that he is no longer loved.
554. We scold ourselves only in order to be praised.
555. We are almost always bored with those who are bored with us.
556. It is most difficult to speak precisely when it is a shame to remain silent.
557. How natural and at the same time how deceptive is a person’s belief that he is loved!
558. It is more pleasant for us to see not those people who do good to us, but those to whom we do good.
559. It is more difficult to hide our true feelings than to portray non-existent ones.
560. Renewed friendship requires more care and attention than friendship that was never interrupted.
561. The one who doesn’t like anyone is much more unhappy than the one who doesn’t like anyone.
562. Old age is hell for women.
563. Self-love is a person’s love for himself and for everything that constitutes his good. It encourages people to idolize themselves and, if fate indulges them, to tyrannize others; it finds contentment only in itself, and dwells on everything extraneous, like a bee on a flower, trying to extract benefit from it. Nothing compares to the fury of his desires, the secrecy of his intentions, the cunning of his actions; his ability to adjust is unimaginable, his transformations put any metamorphosis to shame, and his ability to give himself the purest appearance surpasses any tricks of chemistry. The depth of its abysses is immeasurable, the darkness is impenetrable. There, hidden from prying eyes, it makes its inconspicuous rotations; there, sometimes invisible even to itself, it, without knowing it, conceives, bears, feeds with its juices many likes and dislikes, and then gives birth to such monsters that either sincerely recognizes them as his own, or prefers to renounce them. From the darkness that envelops him arises absurd self-delusions, ignorant, rude, stupid mistakes about himself, the confidence is born that his feelings have died when they are only dormant, the conviction that he will never want to run again if at that moment he is in the mood to rest , the belief that it has lost the capacity to desire if all its desires are temporarily satisfied. However, the thick darkness that hides it from itself does not in the least prevent it from seeing others perfectly, and in this it is similar to our bodily eyes, vigilant to the outside world, but blind to itself. And indeed, when it comes to his cherished plans or important undertakings, he instantly becomes alert and, prompted by a passionate thirst to achieve his goal, sees, feels, hears, guesses, suspects, penetrates, grasps with such accuracy that it seems that not only it, but each of his passions is endowed with truly magical insight. His attachments are so strong and durable that he is not able to get rid of them, even if they threaten him with innumerable troubles, but sometimes he suddenly, with amazing ease and speed, gets rid of feelings with which he has stubbornly but unsuccessfully struggled for many years. From this we can rightly conclude that it is not someone’s beauty and dignity, but it itself that inflames its desires and that only its own taste gives value to the coveted object and brings gloss to it. It does not pursue anything, but only itself and, in achieving what is rightful to it, it pleases its own character. It is woven from contradictions, it is powerful and submissive, sincere and hypocritical, compassionate and cruel, timid and bold, it nourishes a variety of inclinations that depend on a variety of passions, alternately pushing it to gain fame, wealth, and pleasures. It changes its goals along with changes in our age, prosperity, experience, but it does not matter to it how many of these goals are, one or several, because when it needs or wants, it can devote itself to one, and devote itself equally to several. It is impermanent and, apart from changes caused by external circumstances, every now and then it gives birth to changes from its own depths: it is impermanent from inconstancy, from frivolity, from love, from a thirst for something new, from fatigue, from disgust. It is willful, therefore, sometimes, without knowing rest, it works hard, achieving something that is not only unprofitable for it, but also directly harmful, but is the object of its desires. It is full of whims and often devotes all its ardor to the most trivial enterprises, finds pleasure in what is immensely boring, boasts of what is worthy of contempt. It exists among people of any income and position, lives everywhere, feeds on everything and nothing, can be applied to abundance and deprivation, even spreads into the camp of people fighting it, penetrates into their plans and, what is quite surprising, hates them along with them. himself, prepares his own destruction, seeks his own destruction - in a word, in caring for himself and in the name of himself, he becomes his own enemy. But one should not be perplexed if sometimes it declares itself a supporter of unshakable self-denial and, in order to destroy itself, bravely enters into an alliance with it: after all, dying in one guise, it is resurrected in another. It seems to us that it has renounced pleasures, but in fact it has only postponed them or replaced them with others; we think that it is defeated, has suffered a complete defeat, and suddenly we discover that, on the contrary, even after surrendering its weapons, it triumphs in victory. Such is the portrait of selfishness, whose existence is filled with continuous anxiety. The sea with the eternal ebb and flow of its waves is the exact image of selfishness, the tireless movement of its passions and the stormy change of its lusts.
564. The strength of all our passions depends on how cold or hot our blood is.
565. The moderation of one whom fate favors is usually either the fear of being ridiculed for arrogance, or the fear of losing what has been acquired.
566. Moderation in life is similar to abstinence in food: I would eat more, but I’m afraid of getting sick.
567. We love to judge people for what they judge us for.
568. Pride, having played all the roles in a row in a human comedy and, as if tired of its tricks and transformations, suddenly appears with an open face, arrogantly tearing off its mask; Thus, arrogance is, in essence, the same pride that loudly declares its presence.
569. The one who is gifted in small things has the opposite character traits to the one who is capable of great things.
570. A person who understands what misfortunes could befall him is thereby already happy to some extent.
571. No one can find peace anywhere who has not found it in himself.
572. A person is never as unhappy as he thinks, or as happy as he wants.
573. The secret pleasure of knowing that people see how unhappy we are often reconciles us with our misfortunes.
574. Only by knowing our fate in advance could we vouch for our behavior in advance.
575. Can a person say with confidence what he wants in the future if he is not able to understand what he wants now.
576. Love for the soul of the lover means the same as the soul for the body that it spiritualizes.
577. It is not in our will to fall in love or fall out of love, therefore neither a lover has the right to complain about the frivolity of his mistress, nor does she have the right to complain about his inconstancy.
578. The love of justice is born of the liveliest anxiety, lest someone take away our property from us; It is this that motivates people to so carefully protect the interests of their neighbors, to respect them so much, and to so diligently avoid unjust actions. This fear forces them to be content with the benefits granted to them by birthright or the whim of fate, and without it, they would constantly raid other people's possessions.
579. The fairness of a moderate judge only testifies to his love for his high position.
580. People do not condemn injustice because they abhor it, but because it harms their benefit.
581. Having ceased to love, we rejoice when they cheat on us, thereby freeing us from the need to remain faithful.
582. The joy that overwhelms us at the first moment at the sight of the happiness of our friends is by no means caused by our natural kindness or affection for them: it simply follows from the selfish hope that we, in turn, will be happy or at least be able to benefit from benefit from their luck.
583. In the hardships of our best friends, we always find something even pleasant for ourselves.
584. How can we demand that someone keep our secret if we ourselves cannot keep it?
585. The most dangerous consequence of pride is blindness: it supports and strengthens it, preventing us from finding means that would ease our sorrows and help us recover from vices.
586. Having lost hope of discovering intelligence in those around us, we ourselves no longer try to preserve it.
587. No one hurries others like lazy people: having gratified their laziness, they want to appear diligent.
588. We have as much reason to complain about people who help us to know ourselves as that Athenian madman had to complain about the doctor who cured him of the false belief that he was a rich man.
589. Philosophers, and first of all Seneca, with their instructions did not at all destroy human criminal thoughts, but only used them to build the edifice of pride.
590. Not noticing the cooling of friends means valuing their friendship little.
591. Even the most intelligent people are intelligent only in the unimportant; in significant matters, the mind usually fails them.
592. The most bizarre folly is usually the product of the most refined mind.
593. Abstinence in eating is born either from concern for health, or from the inability to eat much.
594. Human talents are like trees: each has special properties and bears only its own fruits.
595. Most quickly we forget what we are tired of talking about.
596. When people shy away from praise, this speaks not so much of their modesty as of their desire to hear more refined praise.
597. People condemn vice and extol virtue only out of self-interest.
598. Praise is useful if only because it strengthens us in virtuous intentions.
599. Beauty, intelligence, valor, under the influence of praise, flourish, improve and achieve such brilliance that they would never have achieved if they had gone unnoticed.
600. Our self-love is such that no flatterer can surpass it.
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