François de La Rochefoucauld:
2nd Duke of La Rochefoucauld.
(Paris, 15 September 1613 – there, 17 March 1680)
French writer, noble soldier and courtier, who became best known for Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales (1665) or Maximes for short (Dutch translation: Maximes), short, concise statements or aphorisms on virtue and morality.
In friendship, as in love, we are often happier by the things we do not know than by those we know.
As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish.
However rare true love may be, it is still less than true friendship.
Envy is destroyed by true friendship, and coquetry by true love.
It shows a lack of friendship not to notice that our friends’ friendship has cooled.
Coincidence makes up for many mistakes that the mind would not know how to deal with.
We are never so easily deceived as when we are intent on deceiving other people.
We easily forgive our friends those faults that do no affect us ourselves.
We would gain more by showing ourselves as we are than by trying to appear to be what we are not.
We forgive as long as we love.
Overthinking is a disease.
Those who devote too much attention to little things generally become incapable of great ones.
