La Rochefoucauld §laroch_408: The most dangerous folly of old persons who have been loveable is to forget t...
Source: François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims (1665) (laroch_408) · external_aligned
The most dangerous folly of old persons who have been loveable is to forget that they are no longer so. ["Every woman who is not absolutely ugly thinks herself handsome. The suspicion of age no woman, let her be ever so old, forgives."--Lord Chesterfield, Letter 129.]
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