Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld

True bravery is shown by performing without witness what one
might be capable of doing before all the world!

True bravery is shown by performing without witness what one
might be capable of doing before all the world!

We would often be ashamed of our finest actions if the world understood all the motives which produced them.

We would often be ashamed of our finest actions if the world understood all the motives which produced them.

It is the prerogative of great men only to have great defects.
[Fr., Il n'appartient qu'aux grands hommes d'avoir read more

It is the prerogative of great men only to have great defects.
[Fr., Il n'appartient qu'aux grands hommes d'avoir de grands
defauts.]

That which makes the vanity of others unbearable to us is that
which wounds our own.
[Fr., Ce read more

That which makes the vanity of others unbearable to us is that
which wounds our own.
[Fr., Ce qui nous rend la vanite des autres insupportable, c'est
qu'elle blesse la notre.]

The passions are the only orators that always persuade: they
are, as it were, a natural art, the rules read more

The passions are the only orators that always persuade: they
are, as it were, a natural art, the rules of which are
infallible; and the simplest man with passion is more persuasive
than the most eloquent without it.