We often inconvenience others, when we fancy we can never possibly do so. Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613 – 1680)

Humility is often only a feigned submission, of which we make use to make others submissive. It is the trickery of pride which abases itself in order to exalt itself, and though it transforms itself in a thousand different ways, it is never better disguised and more capable of deceiving than when it conceals itself under the cloak of humility. […]

We endeavor to make a virtue of the faults we are unwilling to correct. Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613 – 1680)

Self-interest speaks all sorts of tongues, and plays all sorts of roles, even that of disinterestedness. Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613 – 1680)

We take less pains to be happy than to appear so. Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613 – 1680)

There are different kinds of curiosity; one springs from interest, which makes us desire to know everything that may be profitable to us; another from pride, which springs from a desire to know what others do not know. Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613 – 1680)

We become so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that at last we are disguised to ourselves. Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613 – 1680)