La Rochefoucauld's Maximes
A 1665 French collection of maxims arguing that self-interest underlies apparent virtue.
François de La Rochefoucauld published his Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales in 1665, revising it through five editions in his lifetime. The book contains several hundred numbered maxims, most no longer than a sentence.
Its unifying thesis is amour-propre: that self-love explains conduct we prefer to credit to virtue. The maxims are less isolated aphorisms than repeated applications of a single sceptical hypothesis.
The book set the template for the modern aphorism collection — numbered, unattributed to any speaker, arranged for browsing rather than argument — and influenced Nietzsche, Chamfort, and the aphoristic tradition generally.
Common mistake: quoting a maxim as the author's settled belief. La Rochefoucauld revised heavily between editions and sometimes reversed himself; the edition number is part of the citation.
“Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.”
Keep reading the glossary
A short rule for conduct, usually stated as a general principle.
A short, sharp statement that compresses a truth or observation into a single line.
A brief illuminating glimpse — an insight offered as a flash rather than an argument.
A short, weighty statement of general truth used to close or crown a passage of argument.