SOURCE: Epstein, Joseph. “La Rochefoucauld: Maximum Maximist.” The New Criterion (June 1996): 15-24.

In the following essay, Epstein offers a personal appreciation of La Rochefoucauld's life and work, presenting biographical details, discussing scholarly approaches to his texts, and exploring the usefulness of his observations.

François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) did not invent the form known as the maxim, but instead, fairly early in its history, merely perfected it. Defying any notion of progress in the arts, nobody has come along in more than three centuries who has done it better; he remains unsurpassed. “We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others,” he wrote, and later, not gilding but crushing the lily, he added: “We are easily consoled for the misfortunes of our friends, if they afford us an opportunity of displaying our affection.” He also wrote that “hypocrisy is the homage that vice...