Reflections; or Sentences and Moral MaximsFrançois duc de La RochefoucauldOmniClassics · Literature
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
François duc de La RochefoucauldLa Rochefoucauld subjects virtue's flattering self-descriptions to an exacting examination.
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About the book
These maxims ask how often conduct praised as generous, courageous, or disinterested conceals a less admirable motive. Pride, vanity, self-love, habit, and the desire for approval recur beneath the surface of social behavior. The brevity of the form sharpens each proposition, but also leaves readers room to test its reach, resist its generalizations, or recognize an unwelcome truth. Alongside the principal sequence, this edition supplies supplementary maxims and longer reflections on particular subjects, making visible more than the familiar anthology of cutting sentences. J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell's English translation includes introductory and explanatory material. Reading slowly makes the collection a continuing argument about motives rather than a single verdict that nobody is ever sincere.
- Self-interest
- Virtue and appearance
- Social perception
Why read it
The precision of the sentences invites an equally precise response about where psychological suspicion illuminates and where it overreaches.
English translation by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell, 1871