François de La Rochefoucauld, 2nd Duke of La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac (French: [fʁɑ̃swa d(ə) la ʁɔʃfuko]; 15 September 1613 – 17 March 1680) was an accomplished French moralist of the era of French Classical literature and author of Maximes and Memoirs, the only two works of his dense literary œuvre published. His Maximes portrays the callous nature of human conduct, with a cynical attitude towards putative virtue and avowals of affection, friendship, love, and loyalty. Leonard Tancock regards Maximes as "one of the most deeply felt, most intensely lived texts in French literature", with his "experience, his likes and dislikes, sufferings and petty spites ... crystallized into absolute truths."[1]

Born in Paris in 1613, at a time when the royal court was vacillating between aiding the nobility and threatening it, he was considered an exemplar of the accomplished seventeenth-century nobleman. Until 1650, he bore the title of Prince de Marcillac.

…La Rochefoucauld's ethical views have given rise to attacks upon his works by pious moralists of later eras. Like his contemporaries, he saw politics as a chessboard for powerful players, rather than as a struggle of ideologies or a means for achieving broad social goals. He appears to have been unusually scrupulous in his personal conduct, and his lack of success in the aristocratic struggles arose more from this than from anything else.

“It is much easier to extinguish a first desire than to satisfy all of those that follow it.”

“No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.”

“It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.”

“Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them.”

“When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.”

“The only thing constant in life is change.”
“Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy those are who already possess it. ”
“Second-rate minds usually condemn everything beyond their grasp.”
“Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.”
“We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others, that in the end, we become disguised to ourselves.”
“A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.”
“The truest way to be deceived is to think oneself more knowing than others.”
“Almost all our faults are more pardonable than the methods we resort to to hide them.”
“How can you expect another to keep a secret if we have been unable to keep it ourselves?”
“If we had no faults we should not take so much pleasure in noting those of others.”
“We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.”

“He who lives without folly is not as wise as he may think.”
“To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.”
“We forgive so long as we love.”
“In love we often doubt what we most believe.”
“Absence diminishes small loves and increases great ones, as the wind blows out the candle and fans the bonfire.”
“True love is like ghosts, which everybody talks about and few have seen.”
“There are some people who would never have fallen in love if they had not heard there was such a thing.”
“Few things are needed to make a wise man happy; nothing can make a fool content; that is why most men are miserable.”
“Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.”
“We are often more treacherous through weakness than calculation”
“Virtues are lost in self interest as rivers are lost in the sea.”
“Hope and fear are inseparable.”
”We should often be ashamed of our very best actions if the world only saw the motives which caused them.”