Duc de La Rochefoucauld

We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not speak of ourselves at all.

The mind cannot long act the role of the heart.

We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.

However brilliant an action, it should not be esteemed great unless the result of a great motive.

We think very few people sensible, except those who are of our opinion.

Few things are impracticable in themselves; and it is for want of application, rather than of means, that men fail to succeed.

Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.

Often we exaggerate the goodness of others more for our own virtue in giving praise than for the virtues that we praise: thus we invite commendation by seeming to dispense it.

Our pride rather than our virtue criticizes the faults of others: We reprove our friends less to correct their faults than to show that we-ourselves are free of them.

Pride does not wish to owe and vanity does not wish to pay.