Maxims and Thoughts

by Luc de Clapiers de Vauvenargues, Tim Siniscalchi (Translator)

Vauvenargues' maxims are one of the most unusually hidden treasures of French literature and Enlightenment philosophy. It seems only a small, highly distinguished group of readers has gotten to enjoy them.

Voltaire, who was his personal friend and urged him to publish his ideas wrote after his death, "Vauvenargues was a true philosopher; he lived wisely and died heroically without anyone knowing it. I will remember him all my life." (from his letter to Le Clerc de Montmercy in 1764).

A hundred years later, Nietzsche wrote, "[Vauvenargues'] books are above the changes of national taste and philosophical coloring which as a rule every book nowadays radiates and has to radiate if it is to become famous: they contain more real ideas than all the books of German philosophers combined: ideas of the kind that produce ideas." (The Wanderer and his Shadow, aphorism 214)

These profound and heartfelt aphorisms have not been translated into English for a century, and other than this complete edition, only Selections are available.

This volume contains 565 of Vauvenargues' maxims. The original French is included immediately below the translation of each one, and students of French will find Vauvenargues' clear, simple statements a delightful way to transition into reading advanced French literature.

However, this volume is not only for students of French language. It will be appreciated by anyone interested in rare, classic literature, a realistic yet uplifting view of mankind, and sound, profound ideas expressed with feeling.

Genres: Philosophy, France, French Literature, Classics, Nonfiction

200 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1746

About the author

Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues est un écrivain, moraliste et aphoriste français.

Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues was a minor French writer, a moralist. He died at age 31, in broken health, having published the year prior—anonymously—a collection of essays and aphorisms with the encouragement of Voltaire, his friend. He first received public notice under his own name in 1797, and from 1857 on, his aphorisms became popular. In the history of French literature, his significance lies chiefly in his friendship with Voltaire (20 years his senior).

(Source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant and often hysterical, Vauvenargues is closer to Schopenhauer or Nietzsche (in spirit but not temper) than Voltaire or La Rochefoucauld. Unsurprisingly he was taken for a kindred thinker by the former two, with his emphasis on mediocrity, stupidity, cleverness, irrationality, immoralism, and "the age." Vauvenargues has a rare genius for contrasting combinations: sensing counterintuitive relations between multiple polar binaries simultaneously. My own favorite: "It's a great sign of mediocrity to always praise things moderately." Ha! Some more:

When great men told weak people to reflect, they put them on the path to error.

The weak sometimes want to be thought of as wicked; but the wicked want to pass for good.

The usual reason that people give for making others unhappy is wanting what is best for them.

The advice of old people spreads light without warmth, like the sun in winter.

Unimaginative people save themselves from their lives by talking a lot.

Wicked men are always surprised to find cleverness in good ones.

When a person doesn't want to hide any part of his intelligence, he usually lowers its reputation.

What we call a brilliant thought is usually just a captivating expression which, with the help of a little truth, imposes a surprising error on us.

[SB · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heraclitean fire throughout tempered only by a quasi-enlightenment faith in human improvability. It makes sense that Human All Too Human-era Nietzsche saw in Vauvs a kindred spirit, but the two are ultimately quite different in their respective outlooks. First of all Vauvs died at only 31 years of age, impoverished and forgotten (despite previously receiving accolades from no less a figure than Voltaire), but secondly, the Frenchman's aphorisms do not betray Nietzsche's ambition of exploding reality with antinomian grenades and turning language against itself with carefully constructed paradoxes. No, Vauvs' outlook is solidly that of an early modern French moralist, i.e. cynical, pessimistic, reactionary but also universalist and not unfriendly towards the Enlightenment, and always extremely cautiously humanistic. This is the mind of a classically-educated aristocrat, a world-weary front-line veteran who survived the War of the Austrian Succession (one of the more byzantine, politically-engineered wars of the early modern period and a foreshadowing of the Great War), a stoical survivor of smallpox, accute penury (despite his aristocratic background), and courtly intrigue.
"S'il y a un amour de nous-mêmes naturellement efficieux et compatissant, et un autre amour-propre sans humanité, sans équité, sans bornes, sans raison, faut-il les confondre?"[291]

[Cosmin Stroe · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Judecata face filosofi, însă doar virtutea face înțelepți."

"Dacă virtutea singură ar fi de ajuns, atunci nu ar mai fi o calitate umană, ci una supranaturală."

"Se întâmplă adesea să fim prețuiți, pe măsură ce ne prețuim noi înșine."

[Renan Correia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uma leitura essencial para que sanássemos a duvida: Como seria um Rochefoucauld otimista?

[James Dempsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The maxims of Vauvenargue are much lighter than those of La Rochefoucauld, as the former unlike the latter had not been left to brood, deflated in defeat, by the effervescent vicissitudes of political life. La Rochefoucauld was exposed to the murky court politics of the Sun King and therefore to the shadiness of man in all of his striking sublimity; self interest, cynicism, the absence of value, the want of gain, were the beaming lights which blinded him and which he believed to epitomise the base nature of humanity as he saw it. Vauvenargue on the other did not share in this world view; he was neither a man of affairs nor court politics. Their is something stoic in the mind of Vauvenargue, and he seems not to suffer weakness nor timidity nor mediocrity lightly. Ad astra, he opines. This I would imagine is due to his want of being a soldier, and the values which come aligned to the aspiration of being associated with that profession. He often refers to great men, but I am not sure if he thinks himself as being one. Perhaps that is why he wrote this book.

[Mihay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many helpful-in-life and precious thoughts.

[Nasrudin · Rating 3 out of 5]

". Si une pensée ou un ouvrage n’intéressent que peu de personnes, peu en parleront"

[Walter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucid and penetrating insights into the human condition.