Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes About Sincerity
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It is with sincere affection or friendship as with ghosts and apparitions,--a thing that everybody talks of, and scarce any hath seen.
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The reason we do not let our friends see the very bottom of our hearts is not so much distrust of them as distrust of ourselves.
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Weak people cannot be sincere.
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The boldest stroke and best act of friendship is not to disclose our own failings to a friend, but to show him his own.
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Sincerity is an openness of heart; we find it in very few people; what we usually see is only an artful dissimulation to win the confidence of others.
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We acknowledge our faults in order to repair by our sincerity the damage they have done us in the eyes of others.
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The desire of talking of ourselves, and showing those faults we do not mind having seen, makes up a good part of our sincerity.
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Sincerity is a certain openness of heart. It is to be found in very few, and what we commonly look upon to be so is only a cunningsort of dissimulation, to insinuate ourselves into the confidence of others.
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However much we may distrust men's sincerity, we always believe they speak to us more sincerely than to others.
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To praise great actions with sincerity may be said to be taking part in them.
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Whatever distrust we may have of the sincerity of those who converse with us, we always believe they will tell us more truth than they do to others.
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However greatly we distrust the sincerity of those we converse with, yet still we think they tell more truth to us than to anyone else.
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Francois de La Rochefoucauld
- Born: September 15, 1613
- Died: March 17, 1680
- Occupation: Author