We seldom find any person of good sense, except those who share our opinions.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

We seldom find people ungrateful so long as it is thought we can serve them.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

We seldom praise anyone in good earnest, except such as admire us.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

We should often blush for our very best actions, if the world did but see all the motives upon which they were done.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

We should often feel ashamed of our best actions if the world could see all the motives which produced them.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

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

We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the thing given.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

What keeps us from abandoning ourselves entirely to one vice, often, is the fact that we have several.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

What makes the pain we feel from shame and jealousy so cutting is that vanity can give us no assistance in bearing them.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

What men have called friendship is only a social arrangement, a mutual adjustment of interests, an interchange of services given and received; it is, in sum, simply a business from which those involved propose to derive a steady profit for their own self-love.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small interest in order to secure a great one.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

What we call generosity is for the most part only the vanity of giving; and we exercise it because we are more fond of that vanity than of the thing we give.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Whatever good things people say of us, they tell us nothing new.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

When a man is in love, he doubts, very often, what he most firmly believes.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

When a man must force himself to be faithful in his love, this is hardly better than unfaithfulness.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

When our vices leave us, we like to imagine it is we who are leaving them.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

When we are in love we often doubt that which we most believe.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

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