La RochefoucauldThinkers

Envy is more irreconcilable than hatred.

Faithfulness is merely an invention of self-love to win confidence; a method to place us above others and to render us depositaries of the most important matters.

A Fault is criticized in others less to correct them than to show that we do not have it.

Fault is always shared — Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.

Justice is, in most men, no more than the fear of suffering injustice.

The Negotiator is almost always guilty of abandoning the interest of his principals for that of the success of the negotiation which gives him credit for having succeeded in his undertaking.

Pity is a clever foresight of the evils into which we may fall. We succor others in order to engage them to succor us in similar circumstances.

Repentance is not so much regret for the ill we have done as fear of the ill that may happen to us in consequence.

Satire is more often rooted in vanity than in malice.

Self-interest is far more powerful than virtue — The virtues are lost in interest, as rivers are lost in the sea.

Vanity is the greatest of all flatterers.