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One must not just have great qualities, but also economize them

— François de La Rochefoucauld Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665)

Ce n'est pas assez d'avoir de grandes qualités, il en faut avoir l'économie.

Original text (French)

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Variants

It is not enough to have great qualities; one must also make use of them sparingly.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: François de La Rochefoucauld (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.