We should often be ashamed of our very best actions if the world only saw the motives which caused them.
Nous aurions souvent honte de nos plus belles actions, si le monde voyoit tous les motifs qui les produisent.
Original text (French)
More quotes by François de La Rochefoucauld
To succeed in the world we do everything we can to appear successful already.
We hardly find any persons of good sense save those who agree with us.
We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others.
Truth does not do so much good in the world, as the appearance of it does evil.
All François de La Rochefoucauld quotes →
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.