“We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld , book Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims

On aime mieux dire du mal de soi-même que de n'en point parler.
Maxim 138.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)

Original

On aime mieux dire du mal de soi-même que de n'en point parler.

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

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François de La Rochefoucauld 156

French author of maxims and memoirs 1613–1680

Hugh Prather (1938–2010) American writer

Source: I Touch the Earth, the Earth Touches Me

“To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves”

Will Durant (1885–1981) American historian, philosopher and writer

Durant, Will. Commencement Speech. We Have a Right To Be Happy Today https://web.archive.org/web/20130106111821/http://www.willdurant.com/youth.htm. Webb School of Claremont, CA. 7 Jun 1958.
Context: To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves; let us be above such transparent egotism. If you can't say good and encouraging things, say nothing. Nothing is often a good thing to do, and always a clever thing to say.

“If what we think of ourselves were true, the planet would overflow with geniuses. They blossomed; they did not talk about blossoming. They grew; they did not talk about growing.”

Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman

“A Thought about Ourselves,” p. 122
The Sun Watches the Sun (1999), Sequence: “Hopelessness”

“Leftists (who sometimes understand us better than we understand ourselves) have always sensed this; they know that when we talk about immigration, we’re not really talking about immigration.”

Richard Bertrand Spencer (1978) American white supremacist

“Psychology is an attempt to gain a scientific understanding of human nature. We are all deeply interested in knowing human nature. When we are not talking about ourselves we are usually talking about our neighbors.”

Everett Dean Martin (1880–1941)

Source: Psychology and Its Use (1933), p. 9

“We are able to speak for ourselves through our music rather than being defined and put into the spotlight in a very male kind of groomed way for an obviously predominantly male audience.”

Shingai Shoniwa (1981) British musician

On being compared to compared to Karen O and Billie Holiday. http://venuszine.com/stories/music/4102.php

“We demand that sex speak the truth […] and we demand that it tell us our truth, or rather, the deeply buried truth of that truth about ourselves wich we think we possess in our immediate consciousness.”

Michel Foucault (1926–1984) French philosopher

Source: The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction

“We're all talking about the same thing, whether it's religious people or New Age spiritual people or Buddhists or scientists. We're all talking about having a sense of awe and wonder at something grander than ourselves.”

Michael Shermer (1954) American science writer

quoted in [Berger, Kevin, August 23, 2006, http://www.salon.com/books/int/2006/08/23/shermer/print.html, "The joys of life without God", Salon.com, 2006-08-26]

“We cannot avoid meeting great issues. All that we can determine for ourselves is whether we shall meet them well or ill.”

Theodore Roosevelt The Strenuous Life

1900s, The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses (1900), The Strenuous Life

“I like to think that she was right. And I would have responded, but soon our talk show came on, and we stopped worrying about ourselves and each other and started worrying about celebrities.”

Eric Garcia (1972) An amazing author who has written several wonderful books!

Source: The Repossession Mambo (2009), Chapter 12 (p. 187)

“We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all.”

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François de La Rochefoucauld 156

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