“It is more difficult to avoid being ruled than to rule others.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld, Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims, Maxim 151, 1665–1678

About François de La Rochefoucauld

1613 – 1680

French moralist, author of the "Maxims" (1665).

“Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on.”

“Our virtues are most frequently but vices in disguise.”

“Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers.”

“The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.”

“Where there is great power there is great responsibility.”

“Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.”

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

“The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.”

“Our popular Government has often been called an experiment.”