“Self-interest speaks all sorts of tongues and plays all sorts of characters, even that of disinterestedness.”

L'intérêt parle toutes sortes de langues, et joue toutes sortes de personnages, même celui de désintéressé.
Maxim 39.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)

Original

L'intérêt parle toutes sortes de langues, et joue toutes sortes de personnages, même celui de désintéressé.

Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Self-interest speaks all sorts of tongues and plays all sorts of characters, even that of disinterestedness." by François de La Rochefoucauld?
François de La Rochefoucauld photo
François de La Rochefoucauld 156
French author of maxims and memoirs 1613–1680

Related quotes

Omar Bradley photo

“Character is a sort of an all-inclusive thing. If a man has character, everyone has confidence in him. Soldiers must have confidence in their leader.”

Omar Bradley (1893–1981) United States Army field commander during World War II

On military character, in 19 Stars : A Study in Military Character and Leadership (1981) by Edgar F. Puryear Jr.
Context: Dependability, integrity, the characteristic of never knowingly doing anything wrong, that you would never cheat anyone, that you would give everybody a fair deal. Character is a sort of an all-inclusive thing. If a man has character, everyone has confidence in him. Soldiers must have confidence in their leader.

Henry Adams photo

“The effect of power and publicity on all men is the aggravation of self, a sort of tumor that ends by killing the victim's sympathies.”

Henry Adams (1838–1918) journalist, historian, academic, novelist

The Education of Henry Adams (1907)

Rudyard Kipling photo
Joanna Newsom photo

“I'm really interested in the harp as a fully actualized, self-contained way of presenting songs. That there is a bass in the harp - there is a way to create a rhythmic sense without drums - there's a way to have all sorts of textural variations and expressive variations.”

Joanna Newsom (1982) American musician

Sunday Service, 13 December 2004
Context: I'm not terribly interested in playing harp on other people's music right now. Partly because I feel like many people view the harp as this kind of gimmick. You know, like they have songs that are fully realized, complete songs, and then they think "How do we make this special? - Ooh, let's bring the harp in!" and they kind of want a harpist to play a glissando and play some heavenly noise in the background. I'm really interested in the harp as a fully actualized, self-contained way of presenting songs. That there is a bass in the harp - there is a way to create a rhythmic sense without drums - there's a way to have all sorts of textural variations and expressive variations.
I also don't want to feel bound to the harp, I'd be interested in bringing other instruments in at some time. But I think the harp has been viewed in one particular way for so long, and has been limited for so long, that I feel like I am really interested in stretching the boundaries of what it's capable of doing and how it's perceived.

Malcolm Gladwell photo
Miguel de Cervantes photo

“It takes all sorts”

Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright

to make a world
de todos ha de haber en el mundo (literally, “There must be of all [types] in the world”)
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book IV, Ch. 6 / El ingenioso caballero Don Quijote de la Mancha, Capítulo VI

Jane Austen photo

“He seems a very harmless sort of young man, nothing to like or dislike in him — goes out shooting or hunting with the two others all the morning, and plays at whist and makes queer faces in the evening.”

Jane Austen (1775–1817) English novelist

Letter to Cassandra (1813-09-23) [Letters of Jane Austen -- Brabourne Edition]
Letters

Edmund Burke photo
Joanna MacGregor photo
Jean Rhys photo

Related topics