Francois de La Rochefoucauld

A work can become modern only if it is first postmodern. Postmodernism thus understood is not modernism at its end but in the nascent state, and this state is constant.

Women's virtue is frequently nothing but a regard to their own quiet and a tenderness for their reputation.

The generality of virtuous women are like hidden treasures, they are safe only because nobody has sought after them.

You can find women who have never had an affair, but it is hard to find a woman who has had just one.

There are few virtuous women who are not bored with their trade.

One can find women who have never had one love affair, but it is rare indeed to find any who have had only one.

We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it.

Some counterfeits reproduce so very well the truth that it would be a flaw of judgment not to be deceived by them.

However greatly we distrust the sincerity of those we converse with, yet still we think they tell more truth to us than to anyone else.

We are so used to dissembling with others that in time we come to deceive and dissemble with ourselves.

When we disclaim praise, it is only showing our desire to be praised a second time.

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

If we resist our passions, it is more due to their weakness than our strength.

Our aversion to lying is commonly a secret ambition to make what we say considerable, and have every word received with a religious respect.

No man deserves to be praised for his goodness, who has it not in his power to be wicked. Goodness without that power is generally nothing more than sloth, or an impotence of will.

If we have not peace within ourselves, it is in vain to seek it from outward sources.

We have no patience with other people's vanity because it is offensive to our own.

Nature seems at each man's birth to have marked out the bounds of his virtues and vices, and to have determined how good or how wicked that man shall be capable of being.

Flattery is a kind of bad money, to which our vanity gives us currency.

We are all strong enough to bear other men's misfortunes.