Francois de La Rochefoucauld Judging Quotations

Most people know no other way of judging men's worth but by the vogue they are in, or the fortunes they have met with.

If we judge love by most of its effects, it resembles rather hatred than affection.

He is not to pass for a man of reason who stumbles upon reason by chance but he who knows it and can judge it and has a true taste for it.

We judge so superficially of things, that common words and actions spoke and done in an agreeable manner, with some knowledge of what passes in the world, often succeed beyond the greatest ability.

Men and things have each their proper perspective; to judge rightly of some it is necessary to see them near, of others we can never judge rightly but at a distance.

There are some disguised falsehoods so like truths, that 'twould be to judge ill not to be deceived by them.

The greater part of mankind judge of men only by their fashionableness or their fortune.

A person well satisfied with themselves is seldom satisfied with others, and others, rarely are with them.

We should not judge a man's merits by his great qualities, but by the use he makes of them.

Most people judge men by their success or their good fortune.

If one judges love by the majority of its effects, it is more like hatred than like friendship.

We label judges with having the meanest motives, and yet we desire that our reputation and fame should depend upon the judgment of men, who are all, either from their jealousy or preoccupation or want of intelligence, opposed to us - and yet despite their bias, just for the sake of making these men decide in our favor, we peril in so many ways both our peace and our life.

Self-love makes our friends appear more or less deserving in proportion to the delight we take in them, and the measures by whichwe judge of their worth depend upon the manner of their conversing with us.

Self-love increases or diminishes for us the good qualities of our friends, in proportion to the satisfaction we feel with them; and we judge of their merit by the manner in which they act towards us.