LA ROCHEFOUCAULD: SAGE & CYNIC

To an age in which "sophistication" may mean anything from talking like Noel Coward to owning a Diners' Club card, the plumed figure of La Rochefoucauld towers at an impressive altitude of worldliness. The eldest son (born in 1613) of an ancient and doughty French clan, Franc,ois de la Rochefoucauld followed with vigor the customs of the royal court, which is to say he carried on a succession of tumultuous affairs with titled ladies, tangled in the incessant intrigues and wars of 17th century France, recovered twice from severe wounds, and at 66 died, as befitted a gentleman, of the gout. His presence at court gave him plentiful opportunity to observe the follies of others, and his several terms of exile allowed him time to reflect on his own. The celebrated Maxims that resulted established him as the most trenchant aphorist of the age.

Self-interest, in La Rochefoucauld's view, was clearly the carrot that made men trot, as money was later singled out by Balzac, and sex by Freud. Yet, in obsessively concentrating on one human trait, as Author-Critic Louis Kronenberger points out in his new translation of the Maxims (Random House; $3.50), La Rochefoucauld narrowed his vision. Indeed, some of the maxims are strangely naive and platitudinous, suggesting once again that cynicism is sentimentality in reverse--and that, perhaps, the sheltered courtier could have learned from the crude common sense of the peasant. Yet at his best, as Kronenberger puts it, "La Rochefoucauld, in his way, has peered quite as sharply as modern specialists in theirs, into a dark realm of tangled and unsightly motives. Again and again, [he] anticipated the Freudians." Some samples from an adroit translation:

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

You can find women who have had no love affairs, but scarcely any who have had just one.

Old men love to give good advice to console themselves for not being able to set bad examples.

There are successful marriages, but no blissful ones.

We often do good that we may do harm with impunity.

If we resist our passions, it is oftener because they are weak than because we are strong.

A sure way to arouse love is to love very little yourself.

Hope, utter charlatan though she be, at least lures us to life's end along a pretty road.

When our vices desert us, we flatter ourselves that we are deserting our vices.

Virtue would not go nearly so far if vanity did not keep her company.

Folly pursues us at every stage of our lives. If someone seems wise, it is only because his follies befit his age and his position.

Philosophy triumphs with ease over misfortunes past and to come, but present misfortunes triumph over it.

The love of glory, the fear of disgrace, the incentive to succeed, the desire to live in comfort, and the instinct to humiliate others are often the cause of that courage so renowned among men.

Hypocrisy is the homage that vice offers to virtue.

Gratitude is like business credit: it keeps trade brisk, and we pay up, not because it is the honorable thing to do but because it makes it easier to borrow again.

Solemnity is a device of the body to hide the faults of the mind.

Women often falsely imagine they are in love. The excitement of an intrigue, the emotions aroused by sex, the instinctive enjoyment of being wooed and the difficulties of saying no, all give them an illusion of passion where nothing exists beyond coquetry.

We make promises to the extent that we hope, and keep them to the extent that we fear.

We have made a virtue of moderation that we may limit the ambitions of the great and may console the mediocre for their want of fortune or ability.

They are most often wrong who cannot bear to be.

The most dangerous thing that can happen to old people who were once attractive is to forget that they no longer are.

Most friends disgust us with friendship and most pious creatures with piety.

When great men show scorn for death, it is a love of glory that distracts their minds from the truth; when ordinary men do so, it is because their lack of understanding shields them from the gravity of their plight.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.