Reflections: Or, Sentences and Moral Maxims

by François de La Rochefoucauld

We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others.

This famed work by a noted French author of the Renaissance era, seventeenth-century nobleman François de La Rochefoucauld, offers hundreds of brief, brutally honest observations of humankind and its self-serving nature. The perfect read for any realist—or anyone with the desire to evaluate their moral standing—this edition includes three supplements with additional maxims and essays.
 
This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

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

53 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1665

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.

Other authors publishing under this name are:

François de la Rochefoucauld

François VI, duc de la Rochefoucauld, prince de Marcillac (French: [fʁɑ̃swa d(ə) la ʁɔʃfuko]; 15 September 1613 – 17 March 1680) was a noted French author of maxims and memoirs. It is said that his world-view was clear-eyed and urbane, and that he neither condemned human conduct nor sentimentally celebrated it. Born in Paris on the Rue des Petits Champs, at a time when the royal court was vacillating between aiding the nobility and threatening it, he was considered an exemplar of the accomplished 17th-century nobleman. Until 1650, he bore the title of Prince de Marcillac.

Reviews

[Riku Sayuj · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Neither the sun nor death can be looked at steadily,’ declares La Rochefoucauld.

The editors assure us:

the same may be said of his Maxims. Few books as widely read have provoked as much resistance. Most of us can no more look at it without wavering than we could the sun. We cannot bear the thought that it might be true; the consequences would be too painful. So, to shut our eyes to it, to avoid facing it, we rely on every psychological defence we can muster. The book is a work of cynicism, pessimism, scepticism, Jansenism, or some other limited and limiting -ism; we ourselves are much wiser, and take a broader, more balanced view of humanity. Or it is inconsistent, and contains its own refutation. Or it is true only of La Rochefoucauld himself (how corrupt he must be, to be capable of thinking us corrupt!). Or it may be true of many people, but it is not true of us. Or if it is, it is true of us only in our worst moments, or only in some details. Or if we do happen to entertain the thought that it might be wholly true, we entertain that thought only while actually reading it; a few minutes later we put the book aside and turn our minds to other, more comfortable things; we live, in practice, as if we had never read it.

It almost reminds one of Bartleby's message.


A Few Samplers:


My favorite Maxim? It would be this:

There is more pride than kindness in our reprimands to people who are at fault; and we reprove them not so much to correct them as to convince them that we ourselves are free from such wrongdoing.

In addition, here are a few more representative maxims:

We would have few pleasures if we never flattered ourselves.


While laziness and timidity keep us to the path of duty, our virtue often gets all the honour.


The sure way to be deceived is to think yourself more astute than other people.

An Easy Escape:


Most of the maxims employ rhetorical techniques that ambiguously and ironically leave room for each individual reader to dissociate himself or herself from the work’s judgements. The strategy is made explicit in the ‘Note to the Reader’:

‘The reader’s best policy is to start with the premiss that none of these maxims is directed specifically at him, and that he is the sole exception to them, even though they seem to be generally applicable. After that, I guarantee that he will be the first to subcribe to them.’

Thus, the Introduction assures us: it is hard to avoid slipping into defenses against this most incisive of authors. But what if you don’t lend yourself readily to this? If you can avoid anger towards a book that should appear pretty stupid?

Are you then quite wise? Don’t kid yourself.

Most probably you are just uncouth, lacking refinement of thought to even think so deeply of your own nature. To wit: Uncouthness is sometimes enough to save you from being deceived by a clever man.


A Better Guide to Reading:

A better approach (one this reviewer would recommend) to reading these Maxims is to force yourself into being the subject of every maxim no matter how hard it is on your pride.

Accept the hard truths and heap them on yourselves. Reflect on possible actions that reflected on your hypocrisies, vanities and pride. Reflect on your self-deceit until you can accept easily that indeed you are prone to it.


A Pithy Summation:

In summation, all virtues are derided and exposed. Shown to comprise of a malignant core.

Core: Self-flattery and Self-interest
They form the core of all virtues, just as surely as of all vices.
Example: Virtue would not go so far if vanity did not keep her company.

Indeed it will be difficult to persuade any man of good sense that they are being condemned for any other reasons than hidden self-interest, pride, and self-love.


A Silver Lining:

But our greatest virtue is the capacity for hypocrisy without which virtue would long have disappeared then?

Hypocrisy is a form of homage that vice pays to virtue.

An Overexertion to Avoid:

As earlier, one can also slip into an alternative escape hatch: if I can overcome normal pride and go so far as accept these maxims as true for myself even, then I can take pleasure in knowing that such is the extent of my wisdom.

But, it is only pride - masquerading again. There is not even the need to explain this further. There is no escape once you embark on an examination of the basis of our virtues and vices.

[Roy Lotz · Rating 4 out of 5]

We do not like to praise, and we never praise without a motive.

François Duc de La Rochefoucauld was something of a bungler in life. The scion of a great house, the beneficiary of a princely education, the young nobleman got himself mixed up in all sort of plots and intrigues, eventually getting himself locked in the Bastille and later banished to his estate. As a result of this rather undistinguished career in the world, he developed into a man-of-letters, achieving far more success on the page than in the palace.

La Rochefoucauld made a permanent contribution to literature with his Maximes: a collection of cutting aphorisms on the vanity of human nature. His perspective is cynical: seeing bad motives behind even the best actions. Or in his opening words: “Our virtues are most frequently but vices disguised.” And I do not think that one must be a defeated aristocrat in order to see the truth in many of his pronouncements. Here he is his describing me:

One of the reasons that we find so few persons rational and agreeable in conversation is there is hardly a person who does not think more of what he wants to say than of his answer to what is said. The most clever and polite content themselves with only seeming attentive while we perceive in their mind and eyes that at the very time they are wandering from what is said and desire to return to what they want to say.

This also certainly applies to me: “How is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?” But do not think that I am somehow superior for admitting to these shortcomings; for “We own to small faults to persuade others that we have not great ones.” And do not attempt to compliment me: “The refusal of praise is only the wish to be praised twice.” There is no way out.

I often found myself laughing at these aphorisms. So many of them ring true to my experience. And they represent a perspective too rarely expressed in daily life. Selfless action is a deeply appealing concept; and many people wish fervently to believe in it. Yet it is an incontestable fact that most of what we do, even apparently altruistic actions, benefits ourselves in one way or another.

Politicians fight to pass legislation to benefit their constituents, who then return the politician to power; businessmen give their employees a raise, who thus work harder and take less vacation; a friend picks me up from the airport, but he expects me to do something for him in the future; a man returns a wallet he found on the street, is given a reward, and then is lauded on social media. And of course, altruism towards one’s family is the easiest thing to explain this way, since the family is just an extension of the self—psychologically and genetically.

Some may find this way of thinking gloomy and unproductive. But I do think it is important to keep in mind our tendency to act out of self-interest; for, in my experience, it is those who are most attached to the idea of selfless action who most often treat other people badly. It is a dangerous thing to think that virtue is on your side. And, personally, I find it a great relief to see myself as an ordinary animal rather than a moral machine. Self-knowledge requires knowledge of our less honorable motives; and pretending otherwise can lead to a kind of self-alienation: “We become so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that at last we are disguised to ourselves.”

But this dark view of human nature must be tempered in two respects. First, not even La Rochefoucauld thought that all actions were driven by vice. He thinks true virtue is rare, but that it does exist. Second, La Rouchefoucauld often points out that our vices prompt us to act more virtuously than virtue ever could: “The praise bestowed upon us is at least useful in rooting us in the practice of virtue.” Or, elsewhere: “Interest which is accused of all our misdeeds often should be praised for our good deeds.” After all, the actions I described above are all virtuous actions.

And this, for me, is the key insight of La Rochefoucauld’s cynicism: seeing our self-interest, not as inherently bad, but as a kind of neutral force which can be channeled for good or for evil. This insight alone could prevent a lot of needless guilt. More importantly, once we accept this premise, we can more easily shape our lives and societies. For we have discovered the secret of living together: finding arrangement in which self-interest overlaps.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book of a mere 126 pages. The maxims themselves – 640 of them - take up just under 100 pages. The Introduction advises that the first edition of the book, published in the 17th century, contained only 317, and the fifth edition, the last published in La Rochefoucauld’s lifetime, had 504. Around 60 others were found amongst his papers after his death, and about another 80 are added in here that had been published in other editions but later withdrawn as the Duke considered them either badly expressed or too similar to others. To me this last group added little other than to pad out what is very short book.

This doesn’t take long to read but I think is best taken in a few sittings, as opposed to devouring them all at once. They start to lose their impact if you read too many in one go.

François, 2eme duc de la Rochefoucauld, was a man who had to drink often from the cup of bitterness, and this is reflected in the cynicism which characterises many of his maxims. The Duke believed that everything we do is motivated by self-interest, and that even superficially virtuous acts are so motivated. People do virtuous things because it makes them feel good about themselves, or because they want to improve their reputation, or because they like the expressions of gratitude they receive, etc. He has apparently been referred to as “the master of the uncomfortable aphorism” and I agree some of these are quite hard-hitting. It would be wrong for me to share too many of the maxims on this site, but I have shared half-a-dozen of my favourite ones.

A word on the translation. The Introduction explains that in 17th century France the maxim was considered an art form, “expressing some thought about human motives or behaviour in a form combining the maximum of clarity and truth with the minimum of words arranged in the most striking and memorable order.”This means that a translator has a responsibility to be unusually precise, and is perhaps less free to choose between synonyms than is usually the case.

It's suggested that in 17th century France these maxims were often written as a sort of society game, but that it was the Duke’s difficult life experiences that gave his an extra edge. They present a rather harsh and depressing assessment of human nature, but there are still many that provide us with insights into human behaviour.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this collection I believe I have found the first book that you cannot “finish” reading – I took about 2.5 months to go through the maxims and reflections, but I think that I won’t be putting this back on the shelf. It will remain right next to my bed, where I will constantly refer to the marked passages, while also checking whether the unmarked passages begin to show some familiarity.

The maxims are so poignant that they almost teeter on cliché. I was thinking of including a bunch of them that I had found personally meaningful, but here is the thing: I don’t want to. I am scared. I don’t want to bare myself that much, seeing as how the maxims that you gravitate toward say much more about you than the content of them or even La Rochefoucauld. Out of the first 400, I think I must have flagged about 150. In that 150, I think I see my life, my relationship with my family, my successful and failed romantic relationships, my career, and all of my shortcomings (and a few more of my shortcomings too). There were some that immediately stood out as having a certain recipient within my life – I was tempted to send it to him/her. I didn’t. There were some that made me pause and think of my own flaws. Then I moved on. Then I came to a maxim about failing to acknowledge flaws even when it’s stripped bare and put in front of you in palatable portions. Then I moved on. You may have an experience like this when you read this. At some point, you will. I guarantee it.

Pick this up. Start reading it. Don’t stop reading it.

[Julio The Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It is not enough for me to succeed. Others must fail."---Rochefoucauld
Depending on your point of view Rochefoucald was either the world's greatest cynic or a realist. His MAXIMS target the very worst in human deception, as in "Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue". The MAXIMS touch on jealousy (love disguised), love, envy, war, business, and every other occasion in which occultation and dissemblance are called for; in other words, all of your life! Interestingly, Rochefoucauld has little to say on politics, since he takes it for granted that it is a grander stage on which petty passions are played out. This makes him a cousin, not a brother, to Machiavelli. Today, when actors are mistaken for heroes and selfies substitute for the lack of a genuine self we need Rochfoucalf more than ever. His black heart, dear reader, is really yours in a mirror.

[Paul Haspel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maximum impact in a minimum number of words – such is my impression of Rochefoucauld’s Maxims (1665). Situated amidst the ambitions, betrayals, and depravities of the French aristocracy from the time of King Louis XIV, François de la Rochefoucauld, himself a nobleman, retreated to a prominent literary salon of his time, and emerged from it with a pithy and merciless reflection on human frailty.

François was the 2nd Duke de la Rochefoucauld, the Prince of Marcillac, and a leading French nobleman of his time. He received the classical education appropriate to an aristocrat of his time and station, and he played a leading role as an officer in France’s endless wars of those days, sustaining serious wounds in one battle. He cultivated the friendship of powerful women, made an enemy of Cardinal Richelieu, and spent eight days incarcerated in the Bastille. No one could ever have accused Rochefoucauld of having lived an uneventful life.

Sidelined to his estate by changes and reversals in the politics of his time, Rochefoucauld began participating in the literary salon of Madeleine de Souvré, marquise de Sablé. The marquise was a gifted philosopher in her own right, and her salon specialized in the crafting of short, concise sayings that would be revelatory of human character --maximes, they would be called. The belief was that a maxime’s very brevity would help it her closer to the truth; Rochefoucauld would write, in one of his most famous maximes, that “As it is the mark of great minds to say many things in a few words, so it is that of little minds to use many words to say nothing” (Maxim 142). Clearly, Rochefoucauld made the most of his time at the marquise’s salon, as he crafted his maximes that reflected the cynical outlook he had cultivated in his decades amongst the aristocracy.

Rochefoucauld is often described as a moralist, and the central theme of the Maxims is that self-love impedes human beings in their attempts to practice virtue. The epigraph to his Reflections; or, Sentences and Moral Maxims reads that “Our virtues are most frequently but vices disguised”; and in the first of his 504 maxims, Rochefoucauld states that “What we term virtue is often but a mass of various actions and diverse interests that fortune, or our own industry, manage to arrange”, adding for bad measure that “it is not always from valour, or from chastity, that men are brave, and women chaste.” The reader is thus warned at the outset that the remaining 503 maxims will be just as bleak in their outlook regarding the possibility of human virtue.

The next three maxims all dwell upon the power of self-love. Maxim 2 informs us that “Self-love is the greatest of flatterers”, Maxim 4 informs us that “Self-love is more cunning than the most cunning man in the world”, and Maxim 3 makes sure we know that things aren’t going to get any better in regard to human beings’ love of self, as Rochefoucauld announces that “Whatever discoveries have been made in the region of self-love, there remain many unexplored territories there.”

Rochefoucauld’s Maxims sometimes reminded me of Desiderius Erasmus’ In Praise of Folly in its unrelenting, and at the same time humorous, insistence that there is no getting around human beings’ tendency to behave foolishly and selfishly. So you’re a philosopher? That wouldn’t impress Rochefoucauld, who tells us that “Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it” (Maxim 22). Have you tried to achieve something and found it impossible? Rochefoucauld would not express much sympathy: “We have more strength than will; and it is often merely for an excuse that we say that things are impossible” (Maxim 30). Do you try to point out vicious behaviour, in hopes of helping the human race move forward toward virtue? Mec, s'il te plaît! (Dude, please!) Rochefoucauld would simply tell you that “If we had no faults, we should not take so much pleasure in noting those of others” (Maxim 31).

At other times, Rochefoucauld sounded, to me, almost Franklinian. Admirers of Benjamin Franklin’s life and work know that the great Philadelphian had his own talent for writing an epigrammatic maxim or two. It was easy for me to imagine, during the time of the publication of Poor Richard’s Almanack, Franklin throwing in a maxim like “Those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things” (Maxim 41), or “Old men delight in giving good advice as a consolation for the fact that they can no longer set bad examples” (Maxim 93), or “The true way to be deceived is to think oneself more knowing than others” (Maxim 127). And I could also envision Franklin saying, to John Adams or some other overzealous colleague during the Second Continental Congress in 1776, that “The love of justice is simply, in the majority of men, the fear of suffering injustice” (Maxim 78).

Franklin published his maxims in hopes of encouraging his readers, in Philadelphia and beyond, to behave more virtuously. And it seems to me more than likely that Rochefoucauld hoped to achieve the same goal for his readers, in Paris and beyond.

The edition of Rochefoucauld’s Maxims that I have before me benefits from footnotes that show where the great maximist (if that’s a word) may have influenced other authors. Thus Maxim 38 (“We promise according to our hopes, we perform according to our fears” (Maxim 38) is linked with Jean Racine, writing 30 years later in Fragments Historiques (1695), and saying of the powerful diplomat-priest Cardinal Mazarin that “The reason why the Cardinal deferred so long to grant the favours he had promised, was because he was persuaded that hope was much more capable of keeping men to their duty than gratitude.”

Similarly, Maxim 119 (“We become so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that at last we are disguised to ourselves”) is compared here with Edmund Burke, writing in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) that “Those who quit their proper character to assume what does not belong to them, are for the greater part ignorant both of the character they leave and of the character they assume.” This juxtaposition seems especially ironic when one considers the enormous changes that had occurred between Rochefoucauld’s time and that of the French Revolution that Burke denounced so thunderously.

This edition of Rochefoucauld’s Maxims also includes “The First Supplement” – included in the first two published editions of the book, but purged from later ones. Here, we see Rochefoucauld drop the mask, after a fashion. No longer constrained by the expectations at work in the marquise’s salon – no longer obligated, by the conventions of a literary form, to drop one witty, mike-drop maxime after another – the aristocrat-turned-moralist takes a moment to tell us, clearly and soberly, about the harm that self-love does: “Self-love is the love of self, and of all things for self. It makes men self-worshippers, and if fortune permits them, it causes them to tyrannize over others.”

This edition also includes Rochefoucauld’s “Reflections on Various Subjects,” a sort of appendix in which he discourses on various subjects, somewhat after the Ciceronian manner (although with more of a sense of humour). His reflection “On Air and Manner” is characteristic in the way Rochefoucauld denounces artificiality, in manner and speech, among those who aspire to a higher social station than what they currently occupy: “How many lieutenant generals assume to be Marshals of France, how many barristers vainly repeat the style of the Chancellor, and how many female citizens give themselves the airs of duchesses.”

As he advocates suiting the words to the occasion, Rochefoucauld uses figurative language that would no doubt appeal to his aristocratic audience, stating that “We do not march at the head of a regiment as we walk on a promenade”, but adds that one should speak on different occasions “with the same differences as we should walk, but always naturally, and as is suitable, either at the head of a regiment or on a promenade.”

The Maxims are a quick and devastating read; and when one is finished reading Rochefoucauld’s reflections on human character, one may find oneself saying something on the order of, “You know, he’s not wrong.”

[Olga · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author definitely was an intelligent, observant, wise and witty man who did not have illusions about human nature. It did not seem to have made him cynical though.
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'Few know how to be old.'
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'We reach quite inexperienced the different stages of life, and often, in spite of the number of our years, we lack experience.'
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'Luck and temper rule the world.'
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'We try to make a virtue of vices we are loth to correct.'
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'Our enemies come nearer the truth in the opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of ourselves.'
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'Some bad qualities form great talents.'
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'Nothing is rarer than true good nature, those who think they have it are generally only pliant or weak.'
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'The mind attaches itself by idleness and habit to whatever is easy or pleasant. This habit always places bounds to our knowledge, and no one has ever yet taken the pains to enlarge and expand his mind to the full extent of its capacities.'
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'Of all passions that which is least known to us is idleness; she is the most ardent and evil of all, although her violence may be insensible, and the evils she causes concealed; if we consider her power attentively we shall find that in all encounters she makes herself mistress of our sentiments, our interests, and our pleasures; like the (fabled) Remora, she can stop the greatest vessels, she is a hidden rock, more dangerous in the most important matters than sudden squalls and the most violent tempests. The repose of idleness is a magic charm which suddenly suspends the most ardent pursuits and the most obstinate resolutions. In fact to give a true notion of this passion we must add that idleness, like a beatitude of the soul, consoles us for all losses and fills the vacancy of all our wants.'

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maximes Supprimeés (after the First Edition)
"La sobriété est l'amour de la santé, ou l'impuissance de manger beaucoup."(p95, Flammarion)
Moderation is either a love of health, or the inability to eat and drink any more.

"Comment prétendons-nous qu'un autre garder notre secret si nous ne pouvons le garder nous-memes?" (p99) Compare Ben Franklin's improvement:
"Three men can keep a secret, if two of them are dead."
(Poor Richard's Almanac, 70 years after Maxims, 1665.)

"C'est une ennuyeuse maladie que de conserver sa santé par un trop grand régime." Ahh, Diet, the sacred American program, is an illness.

The very first suppressed maxim, two pages long, applies well to the Trumpster: "Self-esteem is self-love. "Il rend les hommes idolâtres d'eux-mêmes et les rend tyrans des autres si la fortune leur en donne les moyens"(91). "It turns men into idolaters of themselves, and tyrants to others if they gain means to be." Nothing is so impetuous as the desires of self-love, "Rien n'est aussi impétueux que ses désirs."

Funerals: "Les pompe des enterrements regarde plus la vanité des vivants que l'honneur des morts."(96) The pomp of funerals issues more from the vanity of the living than from honoring the dead.
[For a cross-cultural account of funerals, see Dickens, "Medicine Men of Civilization."]
"On n'est jamais si malheureux qu'on croit, ni si heureux qu'on avait esperé."(93) You are never as unhappy as you think, nor as happy as you had hoped.

Non-Supprimeés

"Le monde récompense plus souvent les apparences de mérite que le mérite même."(p59)
US Election, 2016? The world recompenses the appearance of merit more than real merit.

"Tout le monde se plaint de sa mémoire, et personne ne se plaint de son jugement."(Max #89, p.53)
"Everyone complains of his memory; no-one of his judgement," I first heard from my Ph.D. director, Leonard Unger.

"L'accent du pays où l'on est né demeure dans l'esprit et dans le coeur, comme dans le langage," reminds me of the regional accents of England and Italy, but especially of my mid-western wife, from Minnesota, Kansas, and Wisconsin whose former accent betrayed her friendliness to arrogant New Englanders.

"Nous avons tous assez de force pour supporter les maux d'autrui." We all have enough strength to
endure the misfortunes of others, or We find some pleasure in our best friend's misfortunes.

Textes Complimentaire.
"Portrait." LaR includes a self-portrait where he says he has too much chin, and that, though he "possesses his language rather well [!], his passions, especially anger, often intrude so that he doesn't express himself as well as he hoped." Cardinal de Retz, for his part, accuses LaR of "lack of penetration" perhaps because the writer avoids religion as a subject.

"De la Retrait," on Retirement. Why old people don't make friends, not finding many true friends, but also thinking those who have died were truer than any new ones: "Ils deviennent insensibles d'amitié, non seulement parce que qu'ils n'en ont peut-être jamais trouvé de véritable, mais parce qui'ils ont vu mourir un grand nombre de leur amis qui n'avaient pas encore eu le temps ni les occasions de manquer à l'amitié et ils se persuadent aisément qu'ils auraient été plus fidèles que ceux qui leur restent." (137)

[Emiliya Bozhilova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bulgarian review first, followed by the English translation below

Винаги съм си представяла Франсоа дьо Ларошфуко като герой от “Тримата мускетари”. Той някак съчетава в себе си бурния XVII век на една вървяща към абсолютен монархизъм Франция, все още разтърсвана от скорошната кървава разправа на католици над хугеноти. Остроумен е като героите на Дюма, всъщност повече. Аристократ като някои от същите тези герои, на моменти истински образ на плаща и кинжала. Служил в армията и при Ана Австрийска, противник на Ришельо. Участник във Фрондата, и дори прострелян и сметнат за мъртъв.

Неговите максими са като майсторски удар с шпага - докато ги чуеш да изсвистят, вече са улучили. Някои са тъжни. Други са твърде надменни и повърхностно елегантни. Трети са непоносимо актуални и днес.

———
▶️ Цитати:

“Колко хора използват своя ум за вършене на глупости!”

“Който живее без лудории, не е толкова мъдър, колкото сам вярва.”

“Всички ние имаме достатъчно сила, за да понасяме чуждите нещастия.”

“Вятърът гаси свещта, но раздухва огъня.”

“Нашите добродетели са най-често само прикрити пороци.”

“Няма достатъчно проницателен човек, способен да разбере злото, което сам върши.”

“Умът не е в състояние да играе дълго ролята на сърцето.”

“Човек не е никога нито тъй щастлив, нито тъй нещастен, както си въобразява.”

I have always imagined François de La Rochefoucauld as a character straight out of "The Three Musketeers." He somehow embodies the turbulent 17th century of a France marching toward absolute monarchy, a country still shaken by the recent bloody slaughter of Huguenots by Catholics. He is as witty as Dumas’s heroes—in fact, even more so. An aristocrat like some of those very characters, at times he is the literal embodiment of a cloak-and-dagger figure. Having served in the army and under Anne of Austria, he was an opponent of Richelieu. He was a participant in the Fronde, and was even shot and left for dead.

His maxims are like the masterful thrust of a rapier—by the time you hear them whistle through the air, they have already hit the mark. Some are sad. Others are all too haughty and superficially elegant. A third group remains unbearably relevant today.

[Rachelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Depressing, bitter, single-sentence maxims that opened my naive eyes and made me want to choose to be a better person than most. La Rouchefoucauld published these first in 1665 (France), but at least 80 percent are still applicable today. Fascinating observations.

[Mohammad Ali Shamekhi · Rating 4 out of 5]

لاروشفوکو در این کتاب بر چند مطلب اصرار دارد: 1) فضایل ادعایی بشر اغلب چیزی جز نمودهای متنوع منیت او نیستند و فروتنی ها و اذعان به اشتباهات و ... صرفا رندی های حب ذات برای ارضاء بیشترند؛ 2) آدمی با زیرکی توانسته تنبلی را که بدترین رذایل است در میان فضایل جا دهد؛ 3) فضائل و رذائل خود را نباید چیزی جدای از فراز و فرود حرارت های مزاجمان بدانیم؛ [ 4) اما آدمی اراده ای دارد که قادر است او را از این وضع طبیعی رهایی بخشد و حقیقت و زیبایی و کمال را برایش به ارمغان آورد ]. این آخری را در براکت نوشتم چون لاروشفوکو چند جمله ی خود را که به این مطلب اشاره می کند در ویرایش های بعدی کتابش حذف کرده. به عبارت دیگر در طول زمان بدبینی اش به آدمی شدیدتر شده

با خواندن حکمت های لاروشفوکو ذهن به یاد ماکیاولی و نیچه می افتد. زیرا این هر دو بر دیدگاه طبیعت گرایانه تأکید داشته اند - یعنی اینکه حقیقت را باید در واقعیت جست. البته ظاهرا ماکیاولی برخلاف نیچه و لاروشفوکو همه چیز را در این افق طبیعی محدود کرد و سعیی برای از تعالی جستن از آن نکرد. اما نیچه در عین اینکه فضایل را از پشتوانه ی اخلاقی - و مسیحیشان - جدا کرد کوشید بنیاد دیگری برای عمل فرانهد که باز همچون لاروشفوکو پیوندی با اراده دارد. جالب آنکه لاروشفوکو از دل فرهنگ فرانسوی ای می آید که آداب و ظرافت های آن مصداق کامل آن رندی هایی است که اراده را در بند می کشد. لاروشفوکو خود بر این ظرافت ها و رندی ها می تازد و اراده ای استوار را طلب می کند. البته همچنان فضائل نزد لاروشفوکو حاضرند و این مرز قاطعی است با نیچه

اینکه کتاب دو زبانه است واقعا اتفاق مبارکی است. البته بهتر بود متن اصلی در صفحات مقابل می آمد و نه در پایان کتاب. من در موارد بسیاری اصل نوشتار را هم خواندم و به نظرم ترجمه قابل اتکا است. مترجم سعی زیادی کرده که جملات فارسی را مکانیکی ترجمه نکند یعنی مثلا واژه ی ژلوزی ( حسادت ) فرانسوی را گاهی غیرت ترجمه کرده، گاهی بدبینی و ... . این کار فی حد ذاته بد نیست و جز موارد اندکی به نظرم حتی می تواند در انتقال مطلب به زبان فارسی مفید هم باشد

[Bogdan Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Toți avem destulă tărie sufletească pentru a îndura nenorocirile altora."

[Uroš Đurković · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ako se nešto može kazati za La Rošfukoa to je da je jedan od najvećih mislilaca sujete. Niko nije tako precizno zabeležio srž (ne samo) francuske nadobudije. Zato La Rošfukoa uz Montenja, treba čitati kao važnu figuru u obrazovanju moderne (egoistične) samosvesti. Nije čudo što ga je izuzetno cenio, između ostalih, Niče. Sam La Rošfuko ima izuzetno zanimljivu biografiju – aktivna politička ličnost 17. veka, protivnik Rišeljea i Mazarena, sa velikim ratničkim iskustvom. Stoga mi njegovi memoari deluju kao moguće veoma zanimljivo štivo.

I da – jedna zanimljivost – La Rošfukoov čukundeda bio je ni manje ni više nego Piko dela Mirandola, čuveni renesansni filozof – ezoteričar, neoplatoničar i mistik (koji je, po nekima, završio i na Rafaelovoj „Atinskoj školi” – kao dugokosi mladić s leve strane). I to je zanimljivo porodično kretanje – od onostranog do ovostranog.

A evo i izbor maksima (jedna je uljez!):

89.
Svi se žale na svoje pamćenje, ali nitko se ne žali na svoje rasuđivanje.

59.
Ne postoji tako loš stjecaj okolnosti a da mudar čovjek iz njega ne bi mogao izvući neku
korist, ni tako dobar stjecaj okolnosti a da ga nerazborit čovjek ne bi mogao okrenuti na
svoju štetu.

87.
Ljudi ne bi dugo živjeli u društvu da stalno ne obmanjuju jedni druge.

89.
Svi se žale na svoje pamćenje, ali nitko se ne žali na svoje rasuđivanje.

117.
Najprofinjenije lukavstvo jest umijeće pretvaranja da smo pali u postavljenu zamku; nikad ne
bivamo tako lako obmanuti kao kad namjeravamo nekog obmanuti.

128.
Pretjerana domišljatost je lažna profinjenost; istinska profinjenost je promišljena
domišljatost.

133.
Jedine dobre imitacije jesu one koje nam pokazuju nesklapnost loših originala.

142.
Dok je obilježje velikih umova reći mnogo toga s malo riječi, mali umovi imaju dar da mnogo
govore i ništa ne kažu.

156.
Postoje ljudi čija je jedina vrijednost govoriti i činiti gluposti na koristan način, i koji bi sve
pokvarili kad bi promijenili ponašanje.

162.
Umijeće vještog služenja osrednjim sposobnostima izaziva uvažavanje i često donosi veći
ugled nego prava vrsnoća.

166.
Društvo češće nagrađuje privide vrsnoće nego vrsnoću samu.

199.
Želja da izgledamo pametni često nas sprečava da to postanemo.

250.
Prava rječitost jest sposobnost da se kaže sve što treba reći i ništa osim toga.

263.
Takozvana velikodušnost najčešće je samo taština davanja, koju volimo više od onoga što
dajemo.

273.
Postoje ljudi koji uživaju sveopću naklonost društva, a nemaju drugih vrlina osim poroka
korisnih za društveni život.

375.
Osrednji umovi obično osuđuju sve što je izvan njihova domašaja.

402.
Ono čega ima najmanje u ljubavnim avanturama jest ljubav.

441.
U prijateljstvu kao i u ljubavi, često smo sretniji više zbog onoga što ne znamo nego zbog
onoga što znamo.

451.
Pametne su budale nepodnošljivije od svih drugih.

467.
Taština nas navodi da činimo više toga što je protivno našem ukusu nego razum.

500.
Tko leti vrijedi, tko vrijedi leti, tko ne leti, ne vrijedi

[Graeme Newell · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’ve ever read a quote that made you smirk, wince, nod in resigned agreement, and question your entire moral character - all within the span of a single sentence - chances are, you’ve brushed up against François de La Rochefoucauld. That’s how I found him: buried in the pages of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. And there he was, just quietly outpacing every other thinker in the “devastating insight” category.

I started noticing a pattern. Every time I came across a line that felt like a polite slap in the face from someone who knew me a little too well, it was signed: “La Rochefoucauld.” I decided I needed to hear more from this man who apparently had front-row seats to humanity’s ongoing tragicomedy and took impeccable notes.

Enter "Reflections or Sentences and Moral Maxims." This book is basically a French aristocrat’s burn book - except instead of teenage gossip, it’s laser-precise, highbrow commentary on the bizarre ways humans behave. It’s short, elegant, and incredibly sharp. Imagine Oscar Wilde with fewer dinner parties and more time to quietly observe everyone’s hypocrisy from the shadows.

The format is simple: hundreds of short, pithy quotes on vanity, pride, love, self-interest, and the general messiness of the human condition. No long essays, no rambling arguments - just well-aimed literary darts. You read one, think, “Wow, that’s harsh,” read it again, and then slowly realize it’s not just about humanity in general. It’s about YOU.

One of my favorites? “We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others.” It’s so tidy, so well-behaved - and yet so viciously true. That’s La Rochefoucauld in a nutshell: he’ll tell you something that sounds reasonable and civilized, and then you realize you’ve just been elegantly called out.

The writing itself is restrained and razor-clean. There’s not a word out of place. No fluff, no filler, no desperate attempt to impress. La Rochefoucauld just says what he means, leaves the mic on the floor, and walks out of the room. It’s kind of infuriating how good he is at this. I’ve spent entire essays trying to make a point he nails in twelve words. He’s the kind of writer who makes you want to delete half your own thoughts just for being inefficient.

The tone? Think: your most observant, world-weary friend - if that friend wore lace cuffs, spoke in aphorisms, and had a PhD in exposing ego. He doesn’t rage. He doesn’t whine. He just calmly, coolly, tells you that everything you thought was noble is probably just self-interest wearing a little perfume.

And here’s the kicker: for all his cynicism, the man is funny. Not belly-laugh funny, but that kind of dry, devastating wit that makes you raise an eyebrow and mutter “touché.” He’s not trying to make you feel better about yourself. But somehow, being seen so clearly by a 17th-century nobleman actually does feel kind of comforting. Like, “Okay, maybe I’m a little vain and self-serving - but hey, so was literally everyone else back then.”

This isn’t a feel-good book. No one’s hugging. No one’s handing out emotional gold stars. But if you like your truths bitter, compact, and impeccably phrased, this is the good stuff. It’s perfect for reading one or two quotes a day - especially if you enjoy starting your morning with a light existential crisis before breakfast.

In the end, this book is a rare thing: a book that tells the truth about people and somehow still manages to be a delight to read. It doesn’t try to fix you. It doesn’t even judge you - it just winks, shrugs, and says, “Humans, right?” And for me, that’s more than enough.

[نادية أحمد · Rating 4 out of 5]

أوّل تقييم باللغة العربية لكتاب حكم وأفكار
لفرانسوا دو لاروشفوكو هو تقييمي
الكتاب ترجّم من الفرنسية إلى العربية هذا العام ٢٠١٧
وهو ضمن الكتب المدرجة في مشروع " كلمة "
التابع لهيئة أبوظبي للسياحة والثقافة.

بدايةً الكتاب يقع ضمن كلاسيكيّات الأدب الفرنسي
ويعالج العديد من الحِكم والأفكار
و وجهات نظر الكاتب في العديد من القِيم
والمصطلحات الدارجة والأخلاقيات

سبق وذكرت في حساباتي على السوشال ميديا
بأنّ أفكار فرانسوا مقاربة جداً لأفكار جبران خليل جبران
حتى الأسلوب متقارب بطريقة عجيبة!

فرانسوا ليس متشائماً ولا سلبياً إنّما
" واقعي "
ويبدو من كتاباته أنها عبارة عن :
خلاصة تجاربه وتجارب غيره في الحياة
وفلسفته القائمة على واقع ليس بسهل
فمثلاً منذ سن السادسة عشرة انخرط في
حاشية لويس الثالث عشر
أي عاقر أجواء السياسة والدبلوماسية
لمع أيضاً كمحارب في حملتي ١٦٣٥ و١٦٣٨

و في سن الأربعين اتجه للصالونات وعقد علاقات غرام
وصداقة مع أشهر نساء ذاك الوسط
وأغلبهن يمارسن الكتابة
ثمّ أصيب بالنقرس فتوجّه للكتابة الأدبية

الحكم الواردة في هذا الكتاب نشرت في خمس طبعات
متوالية بين تنقيحات وإضافات.

والقارئ لهذه النسخة والتي تعتبر في حلتها النهائية
فإنه يطّلع على ما قد تم حذفه في النسخ السابقة
أي بإعتبار هذه الطبعة هي الناسخة لما قبلها

ويستشف القارئ الحرص الشديد من قبل فرانسوا
والمسؤولين عن نشر حكمه؛ بأنّها مصقولة ولامعة
وتم تنقيحها بطريقة عبقرية.

أمّا مُجمل ما تحدّث عنه بما يخص الأفكار:
١) الحب
٢) الثقة وهنا أسهب جداً في الحديث عنها
٣) الحياة
٤) المجتمع
٥) الحظ
٦) التقلّب
٧) اعتزال العالم
٨) أحداث هذا القرن
٩) اختلاف العقول
١٠) المظهر والسلوك

الحِكم تناولها بطريقة مميزة، فجاءت على شاكلة
قطع قصيرة وقصيرة جداً
واحتلت من الصفحات ما يقارب نصف الكتاب

وكذلك تم تدوين الحِكم المحذوفة والمستبعدة
وهذا ما أجده جدليّة!

في الخاتمة يتناول فرانسوا الحديث عن شكل
السيّدة دو مو نتسبان
والكاردينال دو ريتز
ثمّ ملاحظات حول بدايات حياة الكاردينال دو ريشيلو
ويصف شكله هو نفسه فرانسوا بدقّة متناهية.

اقتباسات من بعض حكمه:
- حب الذات أمهر من أمهر إنسان في العالم.
- ليست رأفة الأمراء في الغالب إلّا سياسة
لكسب محبّة الشعوب.
- نمتلك كلنا ما يكفي من القوّة لتحمّل إساءات الآخرين.
- لو لم تكن لنا عيوب قط، لما استمتعنا بملاحظة
وجودها لدى الآخرين.
- نعد وفق آمالنا ونمتنع عن الوعد وفق مخاوفنا.
- تقلّب مزاجنا أغرب بكثير من تقلّب الحظ.
- لو أننا حكمتا على الحب انطلاقاً من أغلب نتائجه،
لتبيّن أنه أقرب إلى الحقد منه إلى الصداقة.
- ليس حب العدالة لدى غالبية الناس سوى
خوف من مكابدة الظلم.
- الصمت هو القرار الأسلم لدى من يرتاب من نفسه.
- قِوام التهذيب في العقل هو التفكير في أشياء نزيهة ولائقة.
- العقل هو دائماً ضحيّة خداع القلب.
- لت يمكن للعقل أن يلعب دائماً دور القلب مطوّلاً.
- عيوب العقل تزداد مع تقدّم السّن مثل عيوب الوجه.
- النّسخ الوحيدة الجيدة هي تلك التي تجعلنا نرى
سخف الأصل الرديء.
- يكون الكلام قليلاً عندما لا يكون الغرور هو الدافع إلى الكلام.
- لا نَمدَح عادة إلّا لكي نُمدح.
- ثمّة ملامات تمدح، ومدائح تهجو.
- من عاش بلا جنون لم يكن على تلك الدرجة من الحكمة التي يعتقد.

*الكتاب جميل جداً وحكيم جداً
وذو قيمة عظيمة للأدباء والفلاسفة،
خاصة المعنيين بالأدب الكلاسيكي.
*اللغة سهلة وبسيطة.
*ترتيب الحِكم والأفكار محكم مما يساعد القارئ
على ترابط أفكاره وقراءاته لا تشتتها.
*يصلح للكثير من الإقتباسات سواء اليومية
أو مقدمات للكتب
*سهولة اللغة رغم عمق المحتوى كفيلة بإنهاء الكتاب خلال يوم واحد


عدد الصفحات: ٢٠٥
نُشر عام: ٢٠١٧
عن: هيئة أبوظبي للسياحة والثقافة
مشروع كلمة
ترجمة: محمد علي اليوسفي
مراجعة: كاظم جهاد

نادية أحمد
١١ جولاي ٢٠١٧

[Nathan "N.R." Gaddis]

Vanity causes me to pursue an accounting of the following exchange:

"Nathan "N.R." wrote: "There is nothing worse in the world than someone who has fallen in love."

[Moira]: Nathan, you get the La Rochefoucauld (sp) award for the day."

[Unknown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great minds have the ability to say much in few words.

In short, the reader’s best policy is to start with the premiss that none of these maxims is directed specifically at him, and the he is the sole exception to them, even though they seem to be generally applicable. After that, I guarantee that he will be the first to subscribe to them, and that he will think them only too favourable to the human heart. That is what I have to say about the work in general.

__________
I'm glad I re-read these, I didn't give them the attention they deserved on the first time round. The blurb on the back of this copy provides a very accurate description of these maxims:

Deceptively brief and insidiously easy to read . . .

A classic work.

[Self-Portrait by the Author moved to comments due to word limit.]
__________
In the human heart, passions are perpetually being generated—so that the downfall of one is almost always the rise of another.

We are more able than willing; often we imagine that things are impossible because we want to excuse ourselves in our own eyes.

We are never as fortunate or unfortunate as we imagine.

Truth does not do as much good in the world as the appearance of it does evil.

No disguise can long hide love where it exists, or simulate is where it does not exist.

There is only one kind of love; but it has thousands of different imitations.

Love, like fire, is sustained only by constant motion; and it ceases to exist when it ceases to hope or fear.

True love is like visitations by ghosts: everyone talks about such things, but few people have seen them.

Silence is the safest policy for someone who does not trust himself.

Everyone complains of his memory, and no one complains of his judgement.

Everyone speaks well of his heart, and no one dares speak well of his mind.

To draw attention to the fact that you never flirt is itself a form of flirtatiousness.

The mind cannot act the role of the heart for long.

It is as easy to deceive ourselves without noticing it, as it is hard to deceive others without their noticing it.

We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves from other people, the in the end we disguise ourselves from ourselves.

If we resist our passions, it is more to their weakness than to our own strength.

The only good copies are those that show us the absurdities of bad originals.

We are sometimes as different from ourselves as we are from other people.

We have little to say when vanity is not making us speak.

A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice over.

There are people with merits who leave a bad taste in the mouth, and people with faults who are likeable.

It is not enough to have great merits; you must also know how to employ them.

The ability to make good use of average talents is an art that extorts respect, and often wins more reroute than real merit does.

The world rewards appearances of merit more often than merit itself.

Vices have a place in the composition of virtues, as poisons have a place in the composition of medicines. Prudence gathers them and tempers them, and puts them to good use against the ills of life.

Only great men can have great faults.

The desire to be seen as clever often prevents us from becoming so.

The person who lives without folly is not as wise as he thinks he is.

We often annoy other people when we think we could not possibly annoy them.

Few things are impossible in themselves; we lack the diligence to make them succeed, rather than the means.

There is no less eloquence in a person’s manner, eyes, and tone of voice, than there is in his choice of words.

True eloquent consists of saying all that is needed and only what is needed.

There are some people whose faults become them well, while other people, with all their good qualities, are lacking in charm.

In any profession each person puts on a pretended look and outward appearance to make him seem what he wants people to think him. So we may say that the world is composed only of appearances.

There are people who have the approval of society, though their only merits are the vices useful for the transactions of daily life.

Women often think they are in love though they are not. The business of an intrigue, the excitement produced by a love affair, a natural predilection for the pleasure of being loved, and the difficulty of refusing, convince them that they are being passionate when they are merely being flirtatious.

We are very far from knowing all our wishes.

Moderation has been turned into a virtue to limit the ambition of great men, and to comfort average people for their lack of fortune and lack of merit.

Sometimes in life there are events that you need to be a little foolish to handle.

If there are men whose absurd side has never been revealed, it is because no one has looked for its properly.

Why is it that we have enough memory to preserve even the slightest details of what has happened to us, but we do not have enough to remind us how many times we have told them to the same person?

We can find ways to cure folly, but we can find none to correct waywardness.

We sometimes think we hate flattery, but what we hate is merely the way it is done.

Women do not know just what flirts they are.

When we are in love, we often doubt what we most believe.

Some faults, properly displayed, shine more brightly than virtue itself

Of all our faults, the one that we tolerate most readily is laziness. We convince ourselves that it stems from all the calm virtues, and that far from completely destroying the other virtues, it merely suspends their activity.

There is a kind of eminence that is not dependent on fortune. It is a certain manner that gives us distinction and seems to destine us for great things; it is a value that we imperceptibly grant to ourselves. By means of this quality we wrest deference from other men; and this is usually what sets us above them, more than birth, honours, or merit itself.

What is least often found in love affairs is love.

The most dangerous folly of old people who used to be attractive is to forget that they are no longer so.

We do not please for long if our minds have only one way of looking at things.

All our passions lead us to make mistakes, but love leads us to make the most absurd ones.

No fools are as annoying as intelligent ones.

Old age is a tyrant that forbids all the pleasures of youth on pain of death.

We never desire passionately what we desire by reason alone.

Through laziness and constancy the mind keeps to what it finds easy and attractive; this habit is constantly limiting our knowledge, and no one ever takes the trouble to extend his mind and lead it as far as it could go.

Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.

Of all our passions, laziness is the one least known to ourselves. It is the most intense and malignant of them all, though its violence is imperceptible and the harm it does is very well hidden. If we carefully consider its power, we shall see that in every situation it dominates our feelings, interests, and pleasures. It is a remora that is strong enough to stop the greatest ships; it is a doldrum that imperils important business more than any reef or even the fiercest storm. The inertia of laziness casts a secret spell over the soul, which suddenly halts our most zealous pursuits and our most stubbornly held resolutions. Finally, to give a true idea of this passion, it must be said that laziness is like a blissful state of the soul, which comforts it for all its losses, and which acts as a substitute for all good things.

When you cannot find peace within yourself, it is useless to look for it elsewhere.

How can we expect another person to keep our secret, if we cannot keep it ourselves?

The world is full of pots calling kettles black.

Man is so wretched that, while he shapes all of his conduct to gratify his passions, he keeps groaning incessantly under their tyranny. He can endure neither their violence, nor the violence that he would have to inflict on himself in order to rid himself of their yoke. He is frustrated not only by his vices, but also by the things that would cure them; and he cannot come to terms either with the discomfort of his afflictions or with the task or curing himself.

We always prrefer ourselves to those with whom we intend to live, and we almost always make them conscious of this preference; that is what disturbs and destroys social intercourse.

There is hardly any man who would want to be seen as he really is in every respect.

There is a particular manner that suits each person’s appearance and talents; when we abandon it in order to adopt another, we are always the losers. We should try to discover the manner that come naturally to us and not depart from it, perfecting it as much as we can.

Instead of being what they want to seem, they strive to seem what they are not. Each of them wants to be someone else, and not what he is. They are searching for a demeanour that is beyond them, a mind that is different from their own; they adopt manners and ways of behaving at random; they experiment with them, not realising that what suits some people does not suit everyone, that there are no general rules for manners and ways of behaving, and copies are never good. Yet two men can be similar in various respects without copying one another, if each of them is simply following his own nature; but hardly anyone follows it altogether—we love to copy; we often copy without realising it, and we neglect our own good qualities for alien ones, which usually do not suit us.

Thousands of people with attractive qualities are disliked; thousands of less talented people are liked—because the former want to seem something that they are not, while the latter are exactly what they seem. In short, whatever advantages or disadvantages we may have received from nature, we are pleasing only in so far as we follow the manner, tones, feelings, and ways of behaving that suit our own condition and demeanour, and we are displeasing to the extent that we depart from them.

When we have what we wish, we do not stop wishing. We grow accustomed to everything that we have; the same possessions do not retain the same value, and no longer affect our taste in the same way. We change imperceptibly, without noticing that we have changed. What we have acquired becomes part of ourselves; we would be deeply affected if we lost it, but we are no longer sensitive to the pleasure of retaining it. Our joy has lost its intensity; we seek it elsewhere, no longer in the things that we used to desire so much. This involuntary inconstancy is the result of time; do what we may, time subtracts from our love, as it does from our life—imperceptibly tarnishing each day some of its youth and gaiety, and destroying its true charms.

There is an attractive, lively first bloom in love, which passes away imperceptibly, like that of fruit. That is no one’s fault; it is merely time’s fault. In the early stages, the other person’s appearance is attractive; our feelings are akin; we seek what is pleasant and agreeable; we want to please, because we are pleased, and we try to show that we are capable of setting the highest possible value on what we love. Later, however, we no longer feel what we thought we would always feel; the fire goes out; the charm of novelty is tarnished; beauty, which plays such a great part in love, either decreases or no longer makes the same impression; the name of love remains, but neither the people nor the feelings are still the same; we keep observing our obligations, our of honour, out of habit, and in order to avoid being too aware of our own change. What couples would have fallen in love, if they had seen each other at first as people see each other with the passage of years? And yet what couples could separate, if they could again see each other as they did at first?

[Aurelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dans ses maximes, La Rochefoucauld remet en question toutes les vertus tant exaltées par les moralistes depuis l’Antiquité. Il dissèque l’esprit humain et ses motivations les plus  intimes. Dans sa description virtuose et pénétrante de la vanité et de l’hypocrisie humaine, il rapproche le lecteur de l’idéal grec de se connaître soi-même. Il le pousse  à être honnête avec soi et à observer les tourbillons qui mouvementent la profondeur de son âme.


La vanité et l’amour-propre sont à la base de tout dessein humain. Grâce à eux le feu de l’ambition brûle constamment. Et  la société humaine n’est qu’un rassemblement artificiel fait pour les satisfaire. Même la vertu, sensée être la voie de la délivrance, est contaminée par l’amour-propre. On se retrouve ainsi plein de vanité à cause du fait que nous essayons de l’échapper. L’amour-propre est flatté et satisfait par le fait d’avoir osé s’en libérer. Leur capacité à passer imperceptiblement au camp de ceux qui les combattent est témoin de leur ténacité et persistance à exister.


L’amour-propre est un thème qui est souvent associé avec Jean Jacques Rousseau, mais La Rochefoucauld ne manque pas de développer le même thème avec plus d’esprit et moins de politique. Il adopte un ton accusateur, pointant du doigt l’intime hypocrisie humaine, qui pénètre chaque prétention à la noblesse des mœurs, remettant en question l’existence de poursuite désintéressée ou dépourvue du besoin de flatterie.  


La caractéristique principale de l’amour propre est peut-être son inconstance. Il change tout le temps, perdant sa satisfaction de toute chose une fois acquise, et se lançant vers une autre. Un lapse de temps indiscernable par l’esprit sépare le moment où commence la lassitude et l’ennui du présent, et la convoitise excitée par la recherche de la nouveauté.  L’amour-propre continue à exister en continuant à dévorer. Sa volatilité est la cause de l’inconstance humaine. Elle jette l’esprit dans les misères et les tourments, celui ci se trouve parfois incapable de suivre la cadence de ses propres créations chémiriques.


Le tableau peint par La Rochefoucauld de la nature de l’esprit humain n’invite pas le lecteur à l’optimisme. L’homme est misérablement condamné à courir derrière son amour-propre et à découvrir qu’au-dessous de toute tentative d'amélioration morale, il existe une vanité latente qu’il cherche à étaler. Que faire donc ? La réponse réside pour lui apparemment dans les vertus chrétiennes, qu’il présente comme les seules ayant une solidité pouvant vaincre les vices si naturels à l’esprit humain. Malheureusement, il ne développe ni le comment ou le pourquoi de la chose. Par sa critique, il se limite à semer le doute au fond des âmes de ceux qui essaient de ou croient  se connaître. Il perturbe  ceux qui pensent qu’ils ont fait quelques pas  sur le chemin de l’excellence morale et de la maîtrise de soi. Même s’il ne présente pas ses alternatives, cette subversion pleine d’intelligence et d’éloquence reste plus que suffisante pour ceux qui ne désespèrent pas.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

The full title of the text is Reflections or Aphorisms and Moral Maxims; and in centered text below the title are the words "Our virtues are usually only vices in disguise." The subtitle says as much as the title. These aphorisms are bitter as they are pithy. Perhaps not bitter -- say, rather, that La Rochefoucauld was not optimistic about human nature. Very few of these aphorisms speak of love, friendship, virtue, or humility with anything but skepticism.

Given how nearly sublimely pessimistic La Rochefoucauld's attitude is, I'm not sure what to think about the translator's claim that "it is one of the most deeply felt, most intensely lived texts in French literature."

A selection:

"We all have strength enough to endure the troubles of others." (19)

"Our promises are made in proportion to our hopes, but kept in proportion to our fears." (38)

"In order to succeed in the world people do their utmost to appear successful." (56)

"Everyone complains of his memory, but nobody of his judgement." (89)

"Old people are fond of giving good advice; it consoles them for no longer being capable of setting a bad example." (93)

"Hope may be a lying jade, but she does at any rate lead us to the end of our lives along a pleasant path." (168)

"When our vices give us up we flatter ourselves that we are giving up them." (192)

"Pride refuses to owe, self-love to pay." (228)

"We often forgive those who bore us, but we cannot forgive those who find us boring." (304)

"We find few guilty of ingratitude while we are still in a position to help them." (306)

"There are few sensible people, we find, except those who share our opinions." (347)

"Our enemies are nearer the truth in their opinion of us than we are ourselves." (458)

"The reason for so much outcry against maxims that lay bare the human heart is that people are afraid of having their own laid bare." (524)

[Boniva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This is seeing the glass all the way empty (& maybe smashed).

Lilian Tomlin said something like, no matter how cynical you get, it's never enough to keep up. If this jives with your view of humanity, read Rochefoucauld.

The maxims are short and pithy and misanthropic:

Self-love is subtler than the subtlest man of the world.

The moderation of happy people comes from the tranquility that good fortune gives to their disposition.

What is called generosity is most often just the vanity of giving, which we like more than what we give.

We make a mistake if we believe that only the violent passions like ambition and love can subdue the others. Laziness, for all her languor, is nevertheless often mistress: she permeates every aim and action in life and imperceptibly eats away and destroys passions and virtues alike.

Few men are sufficiently discerning to appreciate all the evil they do.

Nothing is so contagious as example, and our every really good or bad action inspires a similar one. We imitate good deeds through emulation and evil ones because of the evil of our nature which, having been held in check by shame, is now set free by example.

I could go on all night...

[Feliks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastically precise observations of human nature. But the end result is gloom and depression. If you read just a few pages of this work at one sitting; you will be okay. If you read 1/2 of it at one fell swoop, you will probably need prescription medication. Whatever you do, do not read the whole thing at once--you might never recover. This is grim, savage, biting stuff.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

My French literature textbook included ten of these maxims, and I was intrigued to see more of these timeless tidbits. Most people in my class thought Rochefoucauld displayed a very pessimistic viewpoint on life here, but I thought it was fair and neutral. Maybe I'm just super pessimistic too and didn't realize it?

[Chris Via]

Video review: https://youtu.be/swwOPP-xHcs

[Miriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
,,Amorul-propriu este cel mai de seamă dintre toți lingușitorii.”

,,Smerenia este adevărata dovadă a virtuților creștine: fără ea, ne păstrăm toate defectele, iar ele sunt doar acoperite de trufia care le ascunde celorlalți – și adesea chiar și nouă.”

,,Spiritele mediocre condamnă de obicei tot ceea ce le depășește.”

,,Am avea mai mult de câștigat lăsându-ne văzuți așa cum suntem decât încercând să părem ceea ce nu suntem.”

[Chuck LoPresti · Rating 5 out of 5]

*I've realized I'm writing myself notes more than reviews at times. I'm logging this stuff for my kids mostly who are 6 and 2 at the time of this writing, (Hello M. and O. If I'm dead now it doesn't mean I didn't just see what you did and you should feel horrible about your behavior the moment you are done washing your hands - now go watch 12 Chaplins and get a good night's sleep), I hope I can at least convey some central themes in the book at hand that will justify their presence on this site.

Why not give this to every college student? These essential and concise observations on the nature on man and his shortcomings primarily are concise and useful. This knowledge is available in other places (among those e.g: Rabelais, Montaigne, Stendhal and as far back as Marcus Aurelius) but they appear in their distilled essence here. Something of a French Gilgamesh many years later - I've read that this is well known material among the majority of subsequent French writers - easy to understand why even at a glance.


R. himself posits that there's two motivating factors in gaining knowledge; one, to increase wisdom that might help us live better and the other, to know things that others don't know. This is essentially the mode of all the entries, to expose but somehow not humiliate humans being human. What results in this type of cynicism isn't the pedagogical guidance of Montaigne nor the bawdy insults of Panurge but something that instead works like a father - freed from mom for a few days putting your worm on your hook for you - but making you cast it out. With mom gone and a few beers in the bag there's no reason to not let fly with a bit of sugared venom - grandeur through a measured reduction in the pressure of restraint. Is it possible to be this cynical yet not bitter or off-putting?

I'd argue for a third operating factor that motivates this agnostic epistophiliac at least; the fear of missing out on something. This isn't really some crippling self-loathing - anyone knows the more you know the more you know there is to know...I'm fine with that...but I don't want to miss the essentials. Instead of self-deprecation this factor instead results in very visceral sense of joy when you feel those leaks close. This is very much one of those books. In it we find the keys to things like Zweig's Beware of Pity. Intended or not - this is a Maxim stretched out in narrative form. Life and Fate would also qualify as a Maxi-Maxim (ooofff) in that the goal is to define what really is great in man when all is said and done. Book after book kept coming to mind as I slowly made my way from these, on average, I'd guess two or three sentence concepts. There's fermentable fruit here for those willing to pick it up, smash it down, blow it full of bubbles , stir in some live culture and wait.

Best probably not to read this like other books, leave it in your pocket - a few bits at a time and go as slow as possible. Remember as much detail as you can and repeat as needed for pain.

The opening short essays that operate as self-portraiture and longer form prose are essential. If it's the skill of the translator or R. himself might be a point of distinction beyond my current comprehension but I hope my choice to shelve it near Sir Thomas Browne is deemed appropriate by the man that moves both at the same time one day. I'm dependent on images to provide a comparably elegant evisceration of flesh - let's go with Francis Bacon. I would have loved to know this man and would prefer him to hate me back because the salve of the words which he might have communicated such sentiments would quickly heal any damage that his derogatory opinion might have inflicted. otherwise.

Each Maxim is probably worthy of an essay and upon re-reads I will continue reactions here.

[Jesús De la Jara · Rating 4 out of 5]

MAXIMAS. Escritas por La Rochefoucauld
¿Qué es la virtud? Hoy en día seguro muchos no sabrían bien qué responder, es un tema tan difícil de responder así como lo fue en el siglo XVII y ahora creo banalizado pues poca gente se interesa en su significado y más en siquiera conocer qué es.
El duque de La Rochefoucauld fue un aristócrata francés que vivió en la época de Luis XIII y XIV, como noble participó en la vida militar y en la corte real, así como en la famosa Revolución de la Fronda en la que tambien participó el Gran Condé contra la autoridad real. Es un personaje con muchas experiencias tanto amorosas, de la corte, militares y también de las grandes aspiraciones y decepciones de la vida. Es llamado moralista aunque obviamente no parezca a cualquiera que lo lea. En su siglo él opone de alguna forma novedosa su concepto de virtud y heroísmo al del arquetipo del dramaturgo Corneille. Probablemente su arquetipo es uno de nobleza, orgullo, pero muy alejado de la hipocresía, de la valentía sin límites, de la perfección en una palabra. Sus máximas hablan de casi todos los temas, pero pone énfasis en el ridículo, en la hipocresía pero no en la escandalosa sino en la oculta, la que se camufla entre los "valores" tradicionales, parece que La Rochefoucauld encuentra siempre algo debajo de la amistad, de la generosidad, un trasfondo oscuro pero que sin embargo es una mirada atinada de seguro para algunos casos.
Nunca leí antes un texto de Máximas o adagios, no me agradan en el sentido que pueden llevar a errores frecuentes, como es el caso aquí, no podemos creer todo lo que dice pues depende de la época del autor y las circunstancias en las que las compuso; pero en cambio, me gustan porque creo si vienen de alguien inteligente, o de alguien de mucho mundo, de un hombre como La Rochefoucauld que ha pasado por tantas cosas y conocido tantas personas importantes de su siglo, te pueden transmitir una experiencia única que no la tiene nadie así nomás.
Y luego de leerlas aunque muchos conceptos son ya conocidos, algunos falsos y otros machistas, por decir lo menos, creo que eso no quita reconocer la mirada aguda del autor y su conocimiento tan evidente al leerlas.
Algunas que me gustaron:

"Lo que parece generosidad sólo es frecuentemente una ambición oculta, que desprecia pequeños intereses, por ir a otros más grandes"

"La piedad es frecuentemente un sentimiento de nuestros propios males en los males de otros, es una hábil previsión de nuestros males en los que podríamos caer..."

"Un hombre honesto puede enamorarse como un loco, pero no como un tonto"

"Renunciamos más fácilmente a nuestro interés que a nuestro gusto"

[Eadweard · Rating 3 out of 5]

We are more able than willing; often we imagine that things are impossible because we want to excuse ourselves in our own eyes.
----


There is more pride than kindness* in our reprimands to people who are at fault; and we reprove them not so much to correct them as to convince them that we ourselves are free from such wrongdoing.
----



What men have called friendship is merely social contact, consider ation for one another’s interests, and exchange of favours; in fact, it is simply a transaction in which selflove always expects to gain something.
----


Everyone complains of his memory, and no one complains of his judgement.
----


We acknowledge our faults so that our sincerity may repair the dam age they do us in other people’s eyes.
----

Perfect valour consists of doing without witnesses what you would be capable of doing in front of the whole world.
----


We confess small faults only to convince people that we have no greater ones.
----


Confidence contributes more to conversation than intelligence does.
----


The wish to be pitied or admired is often the main reason that makes us confide in people.
----


When we really are unhappy, we often comfort ourselves by taking a certain pleasure in appearing to be unhappy.
----



A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice over.
----


We usually bestow praise only to receive it.

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the maxims that caught my eye:

"Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it."
Maxim 22

"We have more strength than will; and it is often merely for an excuse we say things are impossible." Maxim 30

"Those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things."
Maxim 41

"We have not enough strength to follow all our reason." Maxim 42

"Happiness is in the taste, and not in the things themselves; we are happy from possessing what we like, not from possessing what others like." Maxim 48

"There are no accidents so unfortunate from which skilled men will not draw some advantage, nor so fortunate that foolish men will not turn them to their hurt. " Maxim 59

"Old men delight in giving good advice as a consolation for the fact that they can no longer set bad examples." Maxim 93

"It is far easier to be wise for others than to be so for oneself." Maxim 132

"No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does." Maxim 269

"We should not judge of a man's merit by his great abilities, but by the use he makes of them." Maxim 437

"Few things are needed to make a wise man happy; nothing can make a fool content; that is why most men are miserable." Maxim LXXX

[Bogdan Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

"There is only one kind of love, but there are a thousand imitations."
One of the fundamental books that humanity has produced.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a whole French course dedicated to these maxims (we weren’t good, so it took a while to finish them). Such clever ideas summed up so well. He would have killed on Twitter.