Skip to content

Fortunate people seldom mend their ways, for when good luck crowns their misdeeds with success they think it is because they are right.

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

Les gens heureux ne se corrigent guère; ils croient toujours avoir raison quand la fortune soutient leur mauvaise conduite.

Original text (French)

Another quote →

Topics

Success

More quotes by François de La Rochefoucauld

To succeed in the world we do everything we can to appear successful already.

Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665)

We hardly find any persons of good sense save those who agree with us.

Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665)

We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others.

Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665)

One must listen if one wishes to be listened to.

Truth does not do so much good in the world, as the appearance of it does evil.

All François de La Rochefoucauld quotes →

You may also like

We spend our lives fighting to get people very slightly more stupid than ourselves to accept truths that the great men have always known.

Doris Lessing The Golden Notebook (1962)

To rank the effort above the prize may be called love.

Confucius

Greatness by nature includes a power, but not a will to power.

Martin Buber Between Man and Man (1965)

The weak shows his strength and hides his weaknesses; the magnificent exhibits his weaknesses like ornaments.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010)

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.