“ We imitate good actions by emulation, and bad ones by the evil of our nature, which shame imprisons until example liberates. ”
François de La Rochefoucauld, Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665). copy citation
| Author | François de La Rochefoucauld |
|---|---|
| Source | Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims |
| Topic | action evil |
| Date | 1665 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by J. W. Willis Bund |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/9105/9105-h/9105-h.htm |
Context
“228.—Pride will not owe, self-love will not pay.
229.—The good we have received from a man should make us excuse the wrong he does us.
230.—Nothing is so infectious as example, and we never do great good or evil without producing the like. We imitate good actions by emulation, and bad ones by the evil of our nature, which shame imprisons until example liberates.
231.—It is great folly to wish only to be wise.
232.—Whatever pretext we give to our afflictions it is always interest or vanity that causes them.
233.—In afflictions there are various kinds of hypocrisy.”
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