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| FRANCIS, DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD |
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| The art of using moderate abilities to advantage often brings greater results than actual brilliance. The head is always the dupe of the heart. The hunger for applause is the source of all conscious literature and heroism. The love of justice is simply, in the majority of men, the fear of suffering injustice. The true way to be deceived is to think oneself more knowing than others. We are never so happy or so unhappy as we supposed. We are so accustomed to wearing a disguise before others that eventually we are unable to recognize ourselves. We forgive to the extent that we love. We hardly find any persons of good sense save those who agree with us. We often forgive those who bore us; we cannot forgive those whom we bore. We would often be ashamed of our finest actions if the world understood all the motives which produced them. |
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