Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes
Few things are needed to make a wise man happy; nothing can make a fool content; that is why most men are miserable.
La Rochefoucauld, François de. Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims. Translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell, Simpson Low, Son, and Marston, 1871.
The translation into the word "love" includes love of things as well as people. The Eigen translation is "All happiness or unhappiness solely depends upon the quality of those relationships with people and those thiongs about which a person is passionate." The Greeks had 7 diffferent words for love od different kinds and things. But the Latin in which this was written is a much less precice lanaguage, quite like English in that respect. The object of the passion might be people, a political movement, a area of study and inquiry like science or mathamatics, the production of something as in art music or literature--even a sport. But if the quality of the object of the passion is poor, the happiness rarely lasts.
She was eventually beheaded.
François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac was a noted French moralist and author of maxims and memoirs. He is part of the literary movement of classicism and best known for his maxims. Although he only officially published his Memoirs and his Maxims, his literary production is dense.
