The following are taken from the Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales (Reflections or aphorisms and moral maxims) of François duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-80), translated by Leonard Tancock, first published by Penguin Books in 1959.

• "If we never flattered ourselves we should get very little pleasure indeed."
  
• "Neither the sun nor death can be looked at steadily."
  
• "The extreme enjoyment we find in talking about ourselves should make us fear that we are not giving very much to our audience."
  
• "The only thing that should astonish us is that we are still capable of astonishment."
  
• "In daily life we are more often liked for our defects than for our qualities."
  
• "Our minds are better employed in bearing the misfortunes that do befall us than foreseeing those that may."
  
• "If we had no faults we should not find so much enjoyment in seeing faults in others."
  
• "Our misdeeds are easily forgotten when they are known only to ourselves."
  
• "To try to be wise all on one's own is sheer folly."
  
• "We often boast that we are never bored on our own, being so conceited that we refuse to find our own company dull."
  
• "Some bad qualities make great talents."
  
• "We try to make virtues out of the faults we have no wish to correct."
  
• "We all have strength enough to endure the troubles of others."
  
• "Excessive hatred brings us down below the level of those we hate."
  
• "Sometimes we think we dislike flattery, but it is only the way it is done that we dislike."
  
• "We come quite fresh to the different stages of life, and in each of them we are usually quite inexperienced, no matter how old we are."
  
• "Self-interest, blamed for all our misdeeds, often deserves credit for our good actions."
  
• "Some follies are as catching as contagious diseases."
  
• "At times we are as different from ourselves as we are from others."
  
• "Suspicion on our part justifies deceit in others."
  
• "Repentence is not so much regret for the evil we have done as fear of the evil that may befall us as a result."
  
• "Our enemies are nearer the truth in their opinion of us than we are ourselves."

• "It is easier to be wise for others than for oneself."
  
• "Where love is, no disguise can hide it for long; where it is not, none can simulate it."
  
• "There are few sensible people, we find, except those who share our opinions."
  
• "Old people are fond of giving good advice; it consoles them for no longer being capable of setting a bad example."
  
• "There are people whose defects become them, and others who are ill served by their good qualities."
  
• "Although men pride themselves on their noble deeds, these are seldom the outcome of a grand design but simply effects of chance."
  
• "In order to succeed in the world people do their upmost to appear successful."
  
• "The world is full of pots jeering at kettles."
  
• "We seldom praise except to get praise back."
  
• "Few men are sufficiently discerning to appreciate all the evil they do."
  
• "We own up to minor failings, but only so as to convince others that we have no major ones."
  
• "Philosophy easily triumphs over past ills and ills to come, but present ills triumph over philosophy."
  
• "Almost all of our failings are more pardonable than the means we employ to hide them."
  
• "Hope may be a lying jade, but she does at any rate lead us to the end of our lives along a pleasant path."
  
• "We should not take offence when people hide the truth from us, since we so often hide it from ourselves."
  
• The duration of our passions is no more dependent upon us than the duration of our life.
  
• Our self-love endures more impatiently the censure of our tastes than of our opinions.
  
• We criticize the faults of others more out of pride than goodness; and we criticize them not so much to correct them as to persuade them that we are free from their faults.
  
• We make promises according to our hopes, and we keep them according to our fears.
  
• Our character determines the value of everything that fortune bestows upon us.
  
• There is no misfortune so terrible that clever people cannot profit from, nor fortune so good that foolish people cannot harm themselves.
  
• It is more shameful to distrust our frinds than to be deceived by them.
  
• Everybody complains of their memory, but nobody complains of their judgement.
  
• Weak people cannot be sincere.
  
• As our character declines, so also does our taste.
  
• The flaws of the mind, like the flaws of the face, increase with age.
  
• Few people are wise enough to prefer useful criticism over treacherous flattery.