Maxims

The philosophy of La Rochefoucauld, which influenced French intellectuals as diverse as Voltaire and the Jansenists, is captured here in more than 600 penetrating and pithy aphorisms.

This is the first-ever French-English edition of La Rochefoucauld's Reflexions, ou sentences et maximes morales, long known in English simply as the Maxims. The translation, the first to appear in forty years, is completely new and aims -- unlike all previous versions -- at being as literal as possible. This involves, among other things, rendering the same word -- for example, amour-propre as self-love - as consistently throughout as good sense allows. This also means that the translators have made every effort to maintain La Rochefoucauld's word order. This allows the reader the best vantage point for viewing La Rochefoucauld's dramatic and paradoxical juxtapositions of words and ideas, juxtapositions of the utmost importance to understanding his thought. Despite the translation's concern with literalness, careful attention has been paid to the nuances of the literary character of the Maxims.

About The Author

He was born Sept. 15, 1613, Paris, France — died March 16/17, 1680, Paris, a French writer. Of a noble family, he joined the army at an early age and was wounded several times. He later played a leading part in the Fronde but gradually won his way back into royal favour. He turned his energies to intellectual pursuits and became the leading exponent of the maxime, a French form of epigram that concisely expresses a harsh or paradoxical truth. Maximes (five eds., 1665 – 78), his principal achievement, consists of 500 reflections on human behaviour. His Mémoires (1664) recount the plots and campaigns of mutinous nobles during the Fronde.