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

About François de La Rochefoucauld

1613 – 1680

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

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

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

“Passion often renders the most clever man a fool, and even sometimes renders the most foolish man clever.”

“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.”

“We realize the importance of our voices only when we are silenced.”

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high.”

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.”

“Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die.”

“Courage is of the heart by derivation, and great it is. But fear is of the soul.”