La Rochefoucauld François: “Maxims and moral reflections” and Test: “The sayings of La Rochefoucauld”

“The talents with which God has endowed people are as diverse as the trees with which he adorned the earth, and each has special properties and bears only its own fruits. That is why the best pear tree will never give birth to even the worst apples, but the most gifted person gives in to a task, albeit an ordinary one, but given only to those who are capable of this task. And therefore, composing aphorisms without at least a little talent for an activity of this kind is no less ridiculous than expecting that bulbs will bloom in a garden bed where no bulbs are planted tulips." - Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“While intelligent people are able to express a lot in a few words, limited people, on the contrary, have the ability to talk a lot - and say nothing.” - F. La Rochefoucauld

François VI de La Rochefoucauld (French François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld, September 15, 1613, Paris - March 17, 1680, Paris), Duke de La Rochefoucauld - French writer, author of works of a philosophical and moralistic nature. He belonged to the southern French family of La Rochefoucauld. Activist in the wars of the Fronde. During his father's lifetime (until 1650), he bore the title of courtesy Prince de Marcillac. Great-grandson of that François de La Rochefoucauld, who was killed on the night of St. Bartholomew.
François de La Rochefoucauld belonged to one of the most noble noble families France. The military and court career for which he was destined did not require college training. La Rochefoucauld acquired his extensive knowledge already in mature age through independent reading. Arriving in 1630 to court, he immediately found himself in the thick of political intrigue.

Origin and family traditions determined his orientation - he took the side of Queen Anne of Austria against Cardinal Richelieu, who was hated by him as a persecutor of the ancient aristocracy. Participation in the struggle of these far from equal forces brought upon him disgrace, exile to his possessions and short-term imprisonment in the Bastille. After the deaths of Richelieu (1642) and Louis XIII (1643), Cardinal Mazarin, who was very unpopular among all segments of the population, came to power. The feudal nobility tried to regain their lost rights and influence. Dissatisfaction with Mazarin's rule resulted in 1648. in open rebellion against royal power - the Fronde. La Rochefoucauld accepted in it Active participation. He was closely associated with the highest-ranking frontiers - the Prince of Condé, the Duke de Beaufort and others and could closely observe their morals, selfishness, lust for power, envy, selfishness and treachery, which manifested themselves in different stages movements. In 1652 The Fronde suffered final defeat, the authority of the royal power was restored, and the participants of the Fronde were partly bought with concessions and handouts, partly subjected to disgrace and punishment.

La Rochefoucauld, among the latter, was forced to go to his possessions in Angoumois. It was there, far from political intrigues and passions, that he began to write his “Memoirs,” which he initially did not intend for publication. In them he gave an undisguised picture of the events of the Fronde and characteristics of its participants. At the end of the 1650s. he returned to Paris, was favorably received at court, but completely withdrew from political life. During these years, he became increasingly attracted to literature. In 1662 The Memoirs were published without his knowledge in a falsified form; he protested this publication and released the original text in the same year. La Rochefoucauld's second book, which brought him world fame - "Maxims and Moral Reflections" - was, like "Memoirs", first published in a distorted form against the will of the author in 1664. In 1665 La Rochefoucauld published the first author's edition, which was followed during his lifetime by four more. La Rochefoucauld corrected and supplemented the text from edition to edition. The last lifetime edition was 1678. contained 504 maxims. In posthumous editions, numerous unpublished ones were added to them, as well as those excluded from previous ones. "Maxims" have been translated into Russian several times.

François VI de La Rochefoucauld (September 15, 1613, Paris - March 17, 1680, Paris), Duke de La Rochefoucauld - a famous French moralist, belonged to the ancient French family of La Rochefoucauld. Until his father's death (1650), he bore the title Prince de Marcillac.

He was brought up at court, from his youth he was involved in various intrigues, he was at enmity with the Duke de Richelieu, and only after the death of the latter began to play a prominent role at court. He took an active part in the Fronde movement and was seriously wounded. He occupied a brilliant position in society, had many social intrigues and experienced a number of personal disappointments, which left an indelible mark on his work. During for long years The Duchess de Longueville played a large role in his personal life, out of love for whom he more than once abandoned his ambitious motives. Disappointed in his affections, La Rochefoucauld became a gloomy misanthrope; His only consolation was his friendship with Madame de Lafayette, to whom he remained faithful until his death. Last years La Rochefoucauld was overshadowed by various adversities: the death of his son, illness.

Our virtues are most often skillfully disguised vices.

La Rochefoucauld Francois de

Biography of Francois de La Rochefoucauld:

The time when François de La Rochefoucauld lived is usually called the "Great Century" French literature. His contemporaries were Corneille, Racine, Moliere, La Fontaine, Pascal, Boileau. But the life of the author of “Maxim” bore little resemblance to the life of the creators of “Tartuffe,” “Phaedra,” or “ Poetic art"And he called himself a professional writer only as a joke, with a certain amount of irony. While his fellow writers were forced to look for noble patrons in order to exist, the Duke de La Rochefoucauld was often burdened by the special attention that the Sun King showed him .Receiving big income from vast estates, he did not have to worry about remuneration for his literary works. And when writers and critics, his contemporaries, were absorbed in heated debates and sharp clashes, defending their understanding of dramatic laws, it was not at all about those and not at all about literary fights and battles that our author recalled and reflected on his rest. La Rochefoucauld was not only a writer and not only a moral philosopher, he was a military leader and a politician. His very life full of adventure, is now perceived as an exciting story. However, he himself told it - in his “Memoirs”. The La Rochefoucauld family was considered one of the most ancient in France - it dates back to the 11th century. The French kings more than once officially called the lords of La Rochefoucauld “their dear cousins” and entrusted them with honorary positions at court. Under Francis I, in the 16th century, La Rochefoucauld received the title of count, and under Louis XIII - the title of duke and peer. These highest titles made the French feudal lord a permanent member of the Royal Council and Parliament and the sovereign master of his domains, with the right of legal proceedings. François VI Duke de La Rochefoucauld, who until his father's death (1650) traditionally bore the name Prince de Marcillac, was born on September 15, 1613 in Paris. His childhood was spent in the province of Angoumois, in the castle of Verteuil, the main residence of the family. Education and training of the Prince de Marcillac, as well as his eleven younger brothers and sisters, was quite careless. As befits provincial nobles, he was mainly engaged in hunting and military exercises. But later, thanks to his studies in philosophy and history, reading the classics, La Rochefoucauld, according to contemporaries, became one of the most learned people in Paris.

In 1630, Prince de Marcillac appeared at court, and soon took part in the Thirty Years' War. Careless words about the unsuccessful campaign of 1635 led to the fact that, like several other nobles, he was exiled to his estates. His father, François V, had lived there for several years, having fallen into disgrace for his participation in the rebellion of Duke Gaston of Orleans, “the permanent leader of all conspiracies.” Young Prince de Marcillac sadly recalled his stay at court, where he took the side of Queen Anne of Austria, whom the first minister, Cardinal Richelieu, suspected of connections with the Spanish court, that is, of high treason. Later, La Rochefoucauld would speak of his “natural hatred” for Richelieu and his rejection of the “terrible manner of his rule”: this will be the result life experience and formed political views. In the meantime, he is full of knightly loyalty to the queen and her persecuted friends. In 1637 he returned to Paris. Soon he helps Madame de Chevreuse, a friend of the queen and a famous political adventurer, escape to Spain, for which he was imprisoned in the Bastille. Here he had the opportunity to communicate with other prisoners, among whom there were many noble nobles, and received his first political education, having internalized the idea that the “unjust rule” of Cardinal Richelieu was intended to deprive the aristocracy of centuries of given privileges and their former political role.

On December 4, 1642, Cardinal Richelieu died, and in May 1643, King Louis XIII died. Regent for a minor Louis XIV Anne of Austria is appointed, and unexpectedly for everyone, Cardinal Mazarin, the successor of Richelieu’s work, finds himself at the head of the Royal Council. Taking advantage of the political turmoil, the feudal nobility demands the restoration of the former rights and privileges taken from them. Marcillac enters into the so-called conspiracy of the Arrogant (September 1643), and after the conspiracy is discovered, he is sent back to the army. He fights under the command of the first prince of the blood, Louis de Bourbron, Duke of Enghien (since 1646 - Prince of Condé, later nicknamed the Great for his victories in the Thirty Years' War). During these same years, Marcillac met Condé's sister, Duchess de Longueville, who would soon become one of the inspirers of the Fronde and would be a close friend of La Rochefoucauld for many years.

Marcillac is seriously wounded in one of the battles and is forced to return to Paris. While he was at war, his father bought him the position of governor of the province of Poitou; the governor was the king's viceroy in his province: all military and administrative control was concentrated in his hands. Even before the newly appointed governor left for Poitou, Cardinal Mazarin tried to win him over with the promise of the so-called Louvre honors: the right of a stool for his wife (that is, the right to sit in the presence of the queen) and the right to enter the Louvre courtyard in a carriage.

The province of Poitou, like many other provinces, was in revolt: taxes placed an unbearable burden on the population. A revolt was also brewing in Paris. The Fronde had begun. The interests of the Parisian parliament, which led the Fronde at its first stage, largely coincided with the interests of the nobility who joined the rebellious Paris. Parliament wanted to regain its former freedom in the exercise of its powers, the aristocracy, taking advantage of the king’s minority and general discontent, sought to seize the highest positions of the state apparatus in order to have undivided control of the country. There was a unanimous desire to deprive Mazarin of power and expel him from France as a foreigner. The rebel nobles, who began to be called fronders, were led by the most eminent people of the kingdom.

He was brought up at court, from his youth he was involved in various intrigues, he was at enmity with the Duke de Richelieu, and only after the death of the latter began to play a prominent role at court. He took an active part in the Fronde movement and was seriously wounded. He occupied a brilliant position in society, had many social intrigues and experienced a number of personal disappointments, which left an indelible mark on his work. For many years, the Duchess de Longueville played a large role in his personal life, out of love for whom he more than once abandoned his ambitious motives. Disappointed in his affections, La Rochefoucauld became a gloomy misanthrope; His only consolation was his friendship with Madame de Lafayette, to whom he remained faithful until his death. La Rochefoucauld's last years were overshadowed by various adversities: the death of his son, illness.

Literary heritage

Maxims

The result of La Rochefoucauld's extensive life experience was his “Maximes” - a collection of aphorisms that constitute an integral code of everyday philosophy. The first edition of Maxim was published anonymously in 1665. Five editions, increasingly enlarged by the author, appeared during La Rochefoucauld's lifetime. La Rochefoucauld takes an extremely pessimistic view of human nature. The main aphorism of La Rochefoucauld: “Our virtues are most often skillfully disguised vices.” At the heart of everything human actions he sees pride, vanity and the pursuit of personal interests. Depicting these vices and drawing portraits of ambitious and selfish people, La Rochefoucauld primarily means people in his own circle; the general tone of his aphorisms is extremely poisonous. He is especially good at cruel definitions, accurate and sharp as an arrow, for example the saying: “We all have a sufficient amount of Christian patience to endure the suffering... of other people.” Very high clean literary significance"Maksim".

Memoirs

No less important work of La Rochefoucauld was his “Memoirs” (Mémoires sur la régence d’Anne d’Autriche), first edition - 1662. The most valuable source about the times of the Fronde.

Alexandre Dumas took the story about the pendants of Queen Anne of Austria, which formed the basis of the novel “The Three Musketeers,” from Francois de La Rochefoucauld’s “Memoirs.” In the novel Twenty Years Later, La Rochefoucauld is shown under his former title - Prince de Marcillac, as the man trying to kill Aramis, who also enjoys the favor of the Duchess de Longueville. According to Dumas, even the father of the duchess’s child was not La Rochefoucauld (as rumors insisted in reality), but Aramis.

Family and Children

Parents: François V (1588-1650), Duke of La Rochefoucauld and Gabriella du Plessis-Liancourt (d. 1672).

Wife: (from 20 January 1628, Mirebeau) Andrée de Vivonne (d. 1670), daughter of Andrée de Vivonne, lord de la Bérodieu and Marie Antoinette de Lomény. Had 8 children:

François VII (1634-1714), Duke of La Rochefoucauld

Charles (1635-1691), Knight of the Order of Malta

Marie Catherine (1637-1711), known as Mademoiselle de La Rochefoucauld

Henrietta (1638-1721), known as Mademoiselle de Marcillac

Françoise (1641-1708), known as Mademoiselle d'Anville

Henri Achille (1642-1698), abbot of La Chaise-Dieu

Jean Baptiste (1646-1672), known as Chevalier de Marcillac

Alexander (1665-1721), known as Abbé de Verteuil

Extramarital affair: Anne Genevieve de Bourbon-Condé (1619-1679), Duchess of Longueville, had a son:

Charles Paris de Longueville (1649-1672), Duke of Longueville, was one of the candidates for the Polish throne

LAROCHEFOUCAULT, FRANCOIS DE(La Rochefoucauld, Francois de) (1613–1680). French political figure XVII century and a famous memoirist, author of famous philosophical aphorisms

Born September 15, 1613 in Paris, representative noble family. Until his father's death he bore the title of Prince of Marcillac. From 1630 he appeared at court and took part in the Thirty Years' War, where he distinguished himself in the battle of Saint-Nicolas. From his youth, he was distinguished by his wit and boldness of judgment and, by order of Richelieu, was expelled from Paris in 1637. But, while on his estate, he continued to support supporters of Anne of Austria, whom Richelieu accused of having connections with the Spanish court hostile to France. In 1637 he returned to Paris, where he helped the famous political adventurer and friend of Queen Anne, Duchess de Chevreuse, escape to Spain. He was imprisoned in the Bastille, but not for long. Despite his military exploits in battles with the Spaniards, he again shows independence and is again excommunicated from the court. After the deaths of Richelieu (1642) and Louis XIII (1643), he is again at court, but becomes a desperate opponent of Mazarin. The feeling of hatred for Mazarin is also connected with love for the Duchess de Longueville, a princess of royal blood, who was called the inspirer of the civil war (Fronde). The old Duke of La Rochefoucauld bought for his son the post of governor in the province of Poitou, but in 1648 the son left his post and came to Paris. Here he became famous for delivering a speech in parliament, published under the title Apology of the Prince de Marcillac which became the political creed of the nobility in civil war. The essence of the declaration was the need to preserve the privileges of aristocrats - as guarantors of the country's well-being. Mazarin, who pursued a policy of strengthening absolutism, was declared an enemy of France. From 1648 to 1653 La Rochefoucauld was one of the main figures of the Fronde. After the death of his father (February 8, 1650), he became known as the Duke of La Rochefoucauld. He led the fight against Mazarin in the southwest of the country, his headquarters was the city of Bordeaux. While defending this area from the royal troops, La Rochefoucauld accepted help from Spain - this did not bother him, because according to the laws of feudal morality, if the king violated the rights of the feudal lord, the latter could recognize another sovereign. La Rochefoucauld proved himself to be the most consistent opponent of Mazarin. He and the Prince of Condé were the leaders of the Fronde of Princes. On July 2, 1652, near Paris in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, the army of the frontiers suffered a decisive defeat from the royal troops. La Rochefoucauld was seriously wounded and almost lost his sight. The war brought ruin to La Rochefoucauld, his estates were plundered, he left political activity. For almost ten years he worked on his memoirs, which were included in the series best memories about the Fronde. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he did not praise himself, but tried to give an extremely objective picture of events. He was forced to admit that most of his comrades in the struggle for the rights of the nobility preferred the role of court nobleman to certain feudal rights. Having endured his ruin relatively calmly, he wrote with bitterness about the greed of the princes. In his memoirs, he paid tribute to Richelieu's statesmanship and recognized his activities as useful for the country.

La Rochefoucauld gave the last two decades of his life literary activity and actively attended literary salons. He worked hard on his main work Maxims– aphoristic reflections on morality. A master of salon conversation, he polished his aphorisms many times; all the lifetime editions of his book (there were five of them) bear traces of this hard work. Maxims immediately brought fame to the author. Even the king patronized him. Aphorisms are by no means written impromptu; they are the fruit of great erudition, an expert ancient philosophy, reader of Descartes and Gassendi. Under the influence of the materialist P. Gassendi, the author came to the conclusion that human behavior is explained by self-love, the instinct of self-preservation, and morality is determined life situation. But La Rochefoucauld cannot be called a heartless cynic. Reason allows a person, he believed, to limit his own nature, to restrain the claims of his egoism. For selfishness can be more dangerous than innate ferocity. Few of La Rochefoucauld's contemporaries revealed the hypocrisy and cruelty of the gallant age. The court psychology of the era of absolutism is the most adequate reflection Maksimov La Rochefoucauld, but their meaning is broader; they are still relevant in our time.

Anatoly Kaplan

Gratitude is simply a secret hope for further approval.

As long as we strive to help people, we will rarely encounter ingratitude.

It is a small misfortune to serve an ungrateful person, but a great misfortune is to accept a service from a scoundrel.

As punishment for original sin God allowed man to create an idol out of selfishness, so that it would torment him on all paths of life.

There are quite a lot of people who despise wealth but give little of it away.

What a boring disease it is to protect your health with an overly strict regime.

Why do we remember in every detail what happened to us, but are unable to remember how many times we told the same person about it?

Petty minds have the gift of saying a lot and saying nothing.

Bodily pain is the only evil that reason can neither weaken nor heal.

Marriage is the only war in which you sleep with the enemy.

Magnanimity is the spirit of pride and the surest means of receiving praise.

Generosity is quite accurately defined by its name; Moreover, it can be said that it is the common sense of pride and the most worthy path to good fame.

Having ceased to love, we rejoice when they cheat on us, thereby freeing us from the need to remain faithful.

In serious matters, one should be concerned not so much with creating favorable opportunities as with not missing them.

Our enemies are much closer to the truth in their judgments about us than we are ourselves.

Arrogance is, in essence, the same pride that loudly declares its presence.

There is nothing stupider than the desire to always be smarter than everyone else.

There are no more intolerable fools than those who are not entirely devoid of intelligence.

Pride is common to all people; the only difference is how and when they manifest it.

Pride always recovers its losses and loses nothing even when it gives up vanity.

Pride does not want to be a debtor, and pride does not want to pay.

Pride, having played human comedy all the roles in a row and as if tired of his tricks and transformations, he suddenly appears with an open face, arrogantly tearing off his mask.

If we were not overcome by pride, we would not complain about the pride of others.

It is not kindness, but pride that usually prompts us to admonish people who have committed wrongdoings.

The most dangerous consequence of pride is blindness: it supports and strengthens it, preventing us from finding means that would ease our sorrows and help us heal from vices.

Pride has a thousand faces, but the most subtle and the most deceptive of them is humility.

Luxury and excessive sophistication predict certain death for the state, because they indicate that all private individuals care only about their own good, without caring at all about the public good.

The highest virtue is to do in solitude what people usually dare to do only in the presence of many witnesses.

The highest valor and insurmountable cowardice are extremes that are very rare. Between them, in a vast space, are located all sorts of shades of courage, as varied as human faces and characters. the fear of death to some extent limits valor.

The highest virtue is to do in solitude what men dare to do only in the presence of many witnesses.

For a simple soldier, valor is a dangerous craft, which he undertakes in order to earn food for himself.

Everyone praises their kindness, but no one dares to praise their intelligence.

Where the end of good is, there is the beginning of evil, and where the end of evil is, there is the beginning of good.

Only the person who has the strength of character to sometimes be evil is worthy of praise for kindness; otherwise, kindness most often speaks only of inactivity or lack of will.

Everyone looks at his debt as an annoying overlord from whom he would like to get rid of.

The evil we cause brings upon us less hatred and persecution than our virtues.

The surest sign of innate high virtues is the absence of innate envy.

It is more shameful not to trust friends than to be deceived by them.

Not noticing the cooling of friends means valuing their friendship little.

Appreciate not what good your friend does, but appreciate his willingness to do good to you.

The heat of friendship warms the heart without burning it.

We are so fickle in friendship because it is difficult to know the properties of a person’s soul and easy to know the properties of the mind.

Love for the soul of the lover means the same as the soul means for the body that it spiritualizes.

Pity is nothing more than a shrewd anticipation of disasters that could befall us.

A far-sighted person must determine a place for each of his desires and then implement them in order. Our greed often disrupts this order and forces us to pursue so many goals at the same time that in the pursuit of trifles we miss the essential.

We are afraid of everything, as mortals should be, and we want everything, as if we had been awarded immortality.

Before you strongly desire something, you should inquire whether the current owner of what you want is very happy.

Women can overcome their passion rather than their coquetry.

There are many women in the world who have never had a single love affair in their lives, but there are very few who have only had one.

A woman in love is more likely to forgive a large indiscretion than a small infidelity.

There are situations in life from which you can only get out of it with a fair amount of recklessness.

Moderation in life is similar to abstinence in food: I would eat more, but I’m afraid of getting sick.

They envy only those with whom they do not hope to be equal.

Our envy always lives longer than the happiness we envy.

Envy is even more incomparable than hatred.

What a boring disease it is to protect your health with an overly strict regime!

The misconception of the stingy is that they consider gold and silver to be goods, when they are only means for acquiring goods.

The desire to talk about ourselves and show our shortcomings only from the side from which it is most beneficial for us is main reason our sincerity.

The truth is not as beneficial as its appearance is harmful.

No flatterer flatters as skillfully as self-love.

Pride never acts as a hypocrite so skillfully as when hiding under the guise of humility.

The highest skill is to know the true price of everything.

Behind the aversion to lying is often hidden a hidden desire to give weight to our statements and to inspire reverent confidence in our words.

As long as we love, we know how to forgive.

True love is like a ghost: everyone talks about it, but few have seen it.

No matter how pleasant love is, its external manifestations still give us more joy than love itself.

There is only one love, but there are thousands of counterfeits.

Love, like fire, knows no rest: it ceases to live as soon as it ceases to hope and fear.

Love covers with its name the most diverse human relations, as if connected with her, although in fact she participates in them no more than rain in the events taking place in Venice.

Many would never fall in love if they had not heard about love.

It is equally difficult to please both someone who loves very much and someone who no longer loves at all.

The one who is cured of love first is always cured more completely.

Everyone complains about their memory, but no one complains about their mind.

There are people with merits, but disgusting, while others, although with shortcomings, are sympathetic.

There are people who are destined to be fools: they do stupid things not only because at will, but also by the will of fate.

Truly cunning people pretend all their lives that they abhor cunning, but in fact they simply reserve it for exceptional cases that promise exceptional benefits.

Only people with a strong character can be truly soft: for others, apparent softness is in reality just weakness, which easily turns into grumpiness.

No matter how much people boast of the greatness of their deeds, the latter are often the result not of great plans, but simply by chance.

When people love, they forgive.

People who believe in their own merits consider it their duty to be unhappy in order to convince others and themselves that fate has not yet rewarded them what they deserve.

People sometimes call friendship spending time together, mutual assistance in business, and exchange of services. In a word - a relationship where selfishness hopes to gain something.

People could not live in society if they did not lead each other by the nose.

People not only forget benefits and insults, but even tend to hate their benefactors and forgive offenders.

People often boast of the most criminal passions, but no one dares to admit to envy, a timid and bashful passion.

Human affection has the peculiarity of changing with changes in happiness.

Human quarrels would not last so long if all the blame were on one side.

A wise man is happy, content with little, but for a fool nothing is enough; that's why almost all people are unhappy.

Sometimes revolutions take place in society that change both its destinies and the tastes of people.

What people call virtue is usually just a ghost created by their desires and wearing such high name so that they can follow their desires with impunity.

Moderation happy people stems from the peace of mind bestowed by unfailing good fortune.

Although the destinies of people are very different, a certain balance in the distribution of goods and misfortunes seems to equalize them among themselves.

The world is ruled by fate and whim.

Youth changes its tastes due to hot blood, and the old man retains his due to habit.

Young men often think that they are natural, when in fact they are simply ill-mannered and rude.

If you want to great art In order to speak out at the right time, then no small art lies in remaining silent at the right time.

For those who do not trust themselves, the wisest thing to do is to remain silent.

Wisdom is to the soul what health is to the body.

It is much easier to show wisdom in the affairs of others than in your own.

The collapse of all a person's hopes is pleasant to both his friends and his enemies.

IN Everyday life Our shortcomings sometimes seem more attractive than our advantages.

Impotence is the only flaw that cannot be corrected.

Majesty is an incomprehensible quality of the body, invented in order to hide the lack of intelligence.

Feigned importance is a special manner of behaving, invented for the benefit of those who have to hide their lack of intelligence.

If we didn’t have shortcomings, we wouldn’t be so pleased to notice them in our neighbors.

The secret pleasure of knowing that people see how unhappy we are often reconciles us with our misfortunes.

With our mistrust we justify the deception of others.

We love to judge people for the same things they judge us for.

Peace cannot be found anywhere for those who have not found it in themselves.

The highest sanity of the least sane people consists in the ability to obediently follow the reasonable instructions of others.

Having several vices prevents us from giving in entirely to one of them.

Our actions seem to be born under a lucky or unlucky star; they owe it to her for the most part praise or blame that falls to their lot.

We should not be offended by people who have hidden the truth from us: we ourselves constantly hide it from ourselves.

Betrayals are most often committed not out of deliberate intention, but out of weakness of character.

It is easier to neglect profit than to give up a whim.

Our whims are much more bizarre than the whims of fate.

The wind blows out the candle, but fans the fire.

Nature, in caring for our happiness, not only intelligently arranged the organs of our body, but also gave us pride, apparently in order to save us from the sad consciousness of our imperfection.

It is never more difficult to speak well than when it is shameful to remain silent.

Separation weakens a slight infatuation, but intensifies a greater passion, just as the wind extinguishes a candle, but fans the fire.

What praises are not given to prudence! However, it is not able to protect us even from the most insignificant vicissitudes of fate.

Everyone complains about their memory, but no one complains about their mind.

Jealousy is to some extent reasonable and just, for it wants to preserve our property or what we consider to be such, while envy is blindly indignant at the fact that our neighbors also have some property.

Jealousy feeds on doubt; it dies or goes berserk as soon as doubt turns into certainty.

Jealousy is always born with love, but does not always die with it.

Modesty is the worst form of vanity

Few people are given the ability to comprehend what death is; in most cases, people go for it not out of deliberate intention, but out of stupidity and established custom, and people most often die because they cannot resist death.

Neither the sun nor death should be looked at point-blank.

It's better to laugh without being happy than to die without laughing.

You can give advice, but you cannot give the mind to use it.

Most often, compassion is the ability to see our own in the misfortunes of others; it is a premonition of disasters that can befall us. We help people so that they in turn help us; Thus, our services are reduced simply to the benefits that we do to ourselves in advance.

The fairness of a moderate judge only testifies to his love for his high position.

For most people, the love of justice is simply the fear of being subjected to injustice.

The love of justice is born of the liveliest anxiety, lest someone take away our property from us; It is this that motivates people to so carefully protect the interests of their neighbors, to respect them so much, and to so diligently avoid unjust actions. This fear forces them to be content with the benefits granted to them by birthright or the whim of fate, and without it, they would constantly raid other people's possessions.

That's why old people love to give so much good advice that they are no longer capable of setting bad examples.

Old age is hell for women.

The strength of all our passions depends on how cold or hot our blood is.

Passions are the only speakers whose arguments are always convincing.

We evaluate everything that fate sends us depending on our mood.

It is more difficult to behave with dignity when fate is favorable than when it is hostile.

Fate arranges everything for the benefit of those whom it protects.

Fate sometimes so skillfully selects various human misdeeds that virtues are born from them.

Fate is considered blind mainly by those to whom it does not bestow good luck.

Only by knowing our fate in advance could we vouch for our behavior in advance.

A person's happiness and misfortune depend as much on his character as on his fate.

How can we demand that someone keep our secret if we ourselves cannot keep it?

There are so many varieties of vanity that it’s not worth counting.

Self-confidence forms the basis of our confidence in others.

The mind sometimes serves us only to boldly do stupid things.

Courtesy of mind is the ability to think with dignity and refinement.

Good taste speaks not so much of intelligence as of clarity of judgment.

Stubbornness is born of the limitations of our mind: we are reluctant to believe what is beyond our horizons.

Philosophy triumphs over the sorrows of the past and future, but the sorrows of the present triumph over philosophy.

We do not have enough strength of character to obediently follow all the dictates of reason.

You can be more cunning than another, but you cannot be more cunning than everyone else.

There is a continuous change of passions in the human heart, and the extinction of one of them almost always means the triumph of the other.

It is much easier to get to know a person in general than someone in particular.

No matter what advantages nature bestows on a person, she can create a hero out of him only by calling on fate to help.

Can a person say with confidence what he wants in the future if he is not able to understand what he wants now?

A man's merits should be judged not by his great merits, but by how he applies them.

Self-love is a person’s love for himself and for everything that constitutes his good.

A person is never as happy or as unhappy as he seems to himself.

A person incapable of big crime, finds it difficult to believe that others are quite capable of him.

It is more difficult to hide our true feelings than to portray non-existent ones.

on other topics

Decency is the least important duty, and the most strictly observed of all others.

Only those who deserve it are afraid of contempt.

The thirst to deserve the praise lavished upon us strengthens our virtue; thus, praise of our intelligence, valor and beauty makes us smarter, more valiant and more beautiful.

Grace is to the body what common sense is to the mind.

We are usually driven to make new acquaintances not so much by fatigue from old ones or love of change, but by dissatisfaction that people we know well do not admire us enough, and the hope that people we don’t know much will admire us more.

He who is not capable of great things is scrupulous in detail.

Affectionateness often stems from a vain mind that seeks praise, rather than from a pure heart.

It is not enough to have outstanding qualities, you also need to be able to use them.

We scold ourselves only to be praised.

We are always afraid to show ourselves to the eyes of the one we love, after we happened to be dragged on the side.

Our pride suffers more when our tastes are criticized than when our views are condemned.

It is a mistake to believe that we can do without others, but it is even more mistaken to think that others could not do without us.

Truly dexterous is the one who knows how to hide his dexterity.

Praise is useful if only because it strengthens us in virtuous intentions.

Before we dedicate our hearts to achieving any goal, let us see how happy those who have already achieved that goal are.

The moderation of one whom fate favors is usually either the fear of being ridiculed for arrogance, or the fear of losing what has been acquired.

Moderation is the fear of envy or contempt, which becomes the lot of anyone who is blinded by his own happiness; this is vain boasting of the power of the mind.

To justify ourselves in our own eyes, we often convince ourselves that we are unable to achieve our goals. In fact, we are not powerless, but weak-willed.

I want to eat and sleep.