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Quotes from Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims — François de La Rochefoucauld

1613–1680 France

← All quotes by François de La Rochefoucauld

122 quotes

What we term virtues are often but a mass of various actions and diverse interests, which fortune or our own industry manage to arrange; and it is not always from valour or from chastity that men are brave, and women chaste.

Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665)

There is a certain dignity of manner independent of fortune, a certain distinctive air which seems to mark us out for great things. It is a value we set upon ourselves without realizing it, and by means of this quality we claim other men’s deference as our due. This does more to set us above them than birth, honors, and merit itself.

Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: François de La Rochefoucauld (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.