Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones just as the wind blows out a candle and fans a fire.

— La Rochefoucauld

A fashionable woman is always in love - with herself.

— La Rochefoucauld

Affected simplicity is refined imposture.

— La Rochefoucauld

A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.

— La Rochefoucauld

Before strongly desiring anything we should look carefully into the happiness of its present owner.

— La Rochefoucauld

Conceit causes more conversation than wit.

— La Rochefoucauld

Everyone complains of his lack of memory but nobody of his want of judgement.

— La Rochefoucauld

Few people know how to be old.

— La Rochefoucauld

Generosity is the vanity of giving.

— La Rochefoucauld

He who imagines he can do without the world deceives himself much but he who fancies the world cannot do without him is still more mistaken.

— La Rochefoucauld