Francois de La Rochefoucauld Giving Quotations

Flattery is a kind of bad money, to which our vanity gives us currency.

Old people love to give good advice; it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example.

Men give away nothing so liberally as their advice.

Many men are contemptuous of riches; few can give them away.

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

We are easily comforted for the misfortunes of our friends, when those misfortunes give us an occasion of expressing our affection and solicitude.

What we call generosity is for the most part only the vanity of giving; and we exercise it because we are more fond of that vanity than of the thing we give.

Never give anyone the advice to buy or sell shares, because the most benevolent price of advice can turn out badly.

Old men delight in giving good advice as a consolation for the fact that they can no longer set bad examples.

Many people despise wealth, but few know how to give it away.

The smallest fault of women who give themselves up to love is to love.

Generosity is the vanity of giving.

The extreme pleasure we take in speaking of ourselves should make us apprehensive that it gives hardly any to those who listen to us.

Whatever pretext we may give for our affections, often it is only interest and vanity which cause them.

We give advice, we do not inspire conduct.

Novelty is to love like bloom to fruit; it gives a luster which is easily effaced, but never returns.

Old people are fond of giving good advice; it consoles them for no longer being capable of setting a bad example.

What is called liberality is often merely the vanity of giving.

We may give advice, but not the sense to use it.

The person giving the advice returns the confidence placed in him with a disinterested eagerness... and he is usually guided only by his own interest or reputation.

Sometimes there is equal or more ability in knowing how to use good advice than there is in giving it.

We give nothing so freely as advice.

The confidence which we have in ourselves give birth to much of that, which we have in others.

We are never so generous as when giving advice.

Our own distrust gives a fair pretence for the knavery of other people.

The applause we give those who are new to society often proceeds from a secret envying of those already established.

Perseverance is neither praiseworthy nor blameworthy; for it seems to be only the enduring of certain inclinations and opinions which men neither give themselves nor take away from themselves.

It is sometimes a point of as much cleverness to know to make good use of advice from others as to be able give good advice to oneself.

A readiness to believe ill of others, before we have duly examined it, is the effect of laziness and pride. We are eager to find aculprit, and loath to give ourselves the trouble of examining the crime.

The exceeding delight we take in talking about ourselves should give us cause to fear that we are giving but very little pleasureto our listeners.

Men frequently do good only to give themselves opportunity of doing ill with impunity.

The breeding we give young people is ordinarily but an additional self-love, by which we make them have a better opinion of themselves.

Unfaithfulness ought to extinguish love, and we should not be jealous when there is reason to be. Only those who give no grounds for jealousy are worthy of it.

The passions do very often give birth to others of a nature most contrary to their own. Thus avarice sometimes brings forth prodigality, and prodigality avarice; a man's resolution is very often the effect of levity, and his boldness that of cowardice and fear.

Pride has a greater share than goodness in the reproofs we give other people for their faults; and we chide them not so much to make them mend those faults as to make them believe that we ourselves are without fault.

Praise is a more ingenious, concealed, and subtle kind of flattery, that satisfies both the giver and the receiver, though by verydifferent ways. The one accepts it as a reward due to his merit; the other gives it that he may be looked upon as a just and discerning person.

It is given to few persons to keep this secret well. Those who lay down rules too often break them, and the safest we are able to give is to listen much, to speak little, and to say nothing that that will ever give ground or regret.

Confidence always pleases those who receive it. It is a tribute we pay to their merit, a deposit we commit to their trust, a pledge that gives them a claim upon us, a kind of dependence to which we voluntarily submit.

The praise we give to new comers into the world arises from the envy we bear to those who are established.

We often persuade ourselves to love people who are more powerful than we are, yet interest alone produces our friendship; we do not give our hearts away for the good we wish to do, but for that we expect to receive.

The moderation of fortunate people comes from the calm which good fortune gives to their tempers.