La Rochefoucauld §laroch_082: Reconciliation with our enemies is but a desire to better our condition, a we...
Source: François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims (1665) (laroch_082) · external_aligned
Reconciliation with our enemies is but a desire to better our condition, a weariness of war, the fear of some unlucky accident. ["Thus terminated that famous war of the Fronde. The Duke de la Rochefoucauld desired peace because of his dangerous wounds and ruined castles, which had made him dread even worse events. On the other side the Queen, who had shown herself so ungrateful to her too ambitious friends, did not cease to feel the bitterness of their resentment. 'I wish,' said she, 'it were always night, because daylight shows me so many who have betrayed me.'"--Memoires De Madame De Motteville, Tom. IV., p. 60. Another proof that although these maxims are in some cases of universal application, they were based entirely on the experience of the age in which the author lived.]
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