La Rochefoucauld §laroch_413: A man cannot please long who has only one kind of wit.
Source: François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims (1665) (laroch_413) · external_aligned
A man cannot please long who has only one kind of wit. [According to Segrais this maxim was a hit at Racine and Boileau, who, despising ordinary conversation, talked incessantly of literature; but there is some doubt as to Segrais' statement.--Aime Martin.]
Witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15)
- manuscript_tradition: First edition, Paris 1665 — Barbin imprint
- critical_edition: Pleiade edition — Truchet (Gallimard, 1964)
- translation: Tancock translation (Penguin Classics, 1959)
- republication: Project Gutenberg — Maxims
- republication: Internet Archive — multiple editions