Many, many years ago when I was studying French I was required to read the pithy maxims of French philosopher and wit Francois VI Duke de La Rochefoucauld. He was an elitist French nobleman of the seventeenth century who commented on the foibles of humans. He wrote hundreds of quotes some good, some too pessimistic and some that are just irrelevant or too relevant for my life. Reading them again fifty years later here are 20 I have found to be true:

“How is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person? ~François Duc de La Rochefoucauld”

“We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us.”
― Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“The truest way to be deceived is to think oneself more knowing than others.”
― Francois de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims

“As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the gift of speaking much and saying nothing. ”
― François de La Rochefoucauld

“Old men delight in giving good advice as a consolation for the fact that they can no longer set bad examples.”
― François de La Rochefoucauld, Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims

“Our minds are lazier than our bodies.”
― François de La Rochefoucauld

“It is far easier to be wise for others than to be so for oneself.”
― Francois Duc de La Rochefoucauld

“Few know how to be old.”
― François Duc De La Rochefoucauld, Reflections: Or, Sentences and Moral Maxims

“There exists an excess of good and evil which surpasses our comprehension”
― François Duc De La Rochefoucauld, Reflections: Or, Sentences and Moral Maxims

“Little minds are too much wounded by little things; great minds see all and are not even hurt.”
― François Duc De La Rochefoucauld, Reflections: Or, Sentences and Moral Maxims

The principal point of cleverness is to know how to value things just as they deserve. Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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No men are oftener wrong than those that can least bear to be so.
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It’s the height of folly to want to be the only wise one. Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Whatever good things people say of us, they tell us nothing new. Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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A wise man thinks it more advantageous not to join the battle than to win. Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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One is never fortunate or as unfortunate as one imagines. Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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If we had no faults of our own, we should not take so much pleasure in noticing those in others.
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We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones. Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us. Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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The accent of one’s birthplace remains in the mind and in the heart as in one’s speech. Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Hope, deceiving as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route. Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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