Fran ois de La Rochefoucauld

In the adversity of our best friends we always find something which is not wholly displeasing to us.

Si nous n'avions point d'orgueil, nous ne nous plaindrions pas de celui des autres.

Those who obstinately oppose the most widely-held opinions more often do so because of pride than lack of intelligence. They find the best places in the right set already taken, and they do not want back seats

Il y a des gens destinés à être sots, qui ne font pas seulement des sottises par leur choix, mais que la fortune même contraint d’en faire.

All passions make us commit faults, but love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones.

What we call liberality is often but the vanity of giving, which we like more than that we give away.

Le refus des louanges est un désir d'être loué deux fois.

"La vertu n'irait pas si loin si la vanité ne lui tenait compagnie.

"Virtue would not go far if vanity did not keep it company.

We should only be astonished at still being able to be astonished.

Some evil men would be less dangerous if there were no good in them at all.

— A man for whom accident discovers sense, is not a rational being. A man only is so who understands, who distinguishes, who tests it.

Whatever pretext we give to our afflictions it is always interest or vanity that causes them.

Too great haste to repay an obligation is a kind of ingratitude.

Envy is more irreconcilable than hatred.

We trouble ourselves less to become happy, than to make others believe we are so.