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Only firm people can be truly soft.

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

Il n'y a que les personnes qui ont de la fermeté qui puissent avoir une véritable douceur.

Original text (French)

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Variants

It is only those who are firm who can be genuinely kind.

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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.