“True love is like the appearance of ghosts: everyone talks about it but few have seen it.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld, Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims, Maxim 76, 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.”

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”

“If music be the food of love, play on.”

“Love the little trade which thou hast learned, and be content therewith.”

“Not to display anger or other emotions. To be free of passion and yet full of love.”

“I call upon you, young men, to obey your heart, and be the nobility of this land.”

“Give all to love; obey thy heart.”