Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Men give away nothing so liberally as their advice. ”

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

The greatest part of intimate confidences proceed from a desire either to be pitied or admired. ”

Nothing prevents one from appearing natural as the desire to appear natural. ”

Nothing hinders a thing from being natural so much as the straining ourselves to make it seem so. ”

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. ”

Though nature be ever so generous, yet can she not make a hero alone. Fortune must contribute her part too; and till both concur, the work cannot be perfected. ”

Heat of blood makes young people change their inclinations often, and habit makes old ones keep to theirs a great while. ”

Taste may change, but inclination never. ”

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