La Rochefoucauld §laroch_138: A man would rather say evil of himself than say nothing.
Source: François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims (1665) (laroch_138) · external_aligned
A man would rather say evil of himself than say nothing. ["Montaigne's vanity led him to talk perpetually of himself, and as often happens to vain men, he would rather talk of his own failings than of any foreign subject."-- Hallam, Literature Of Europe.]
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