We are never so happy or so unhappy as we think.

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

We come altogether fresh and raw into the several stages of life, and often find ourselves without experience, despite our years.

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

We do not wish ardently for what we desire only through reason.

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it.

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

We have no patience with other people's vanity because it is offensive to our own.

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

We often forgive those who bore us but can't forgive those whom we bore.

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

We often forgive those who bore us, but we cannot forgive those whom we bore.

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

We should scarcely desire things ardently if we were perfectly acquainted with what we desire.

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

What causes us to like new acquaintances is not so much weariness of our old ones or the pleasure of change as disgust at not being sufficiently admired by those who know us too well and the hope of being admired more by those who do not know so much about us.

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld