Silence is the surest resolve for him who distrusts himself.
Original text (French)
Original text (French)
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.
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To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men.
Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.
There are times when good words are to be left unsaid out of esteem for silence.
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.