La Rochefoucauld §laroch_268: We credit judges with the meanest motives, and yet we desire our reputation a...
Source: François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims (1665) (laroch_268) · external_aligned
We credit judges with the meanest motives, and yet we desire our reputation and fame should depend upon the judgment of men, who are all, either from their jealousy or pre-occupation or want of intelligence, opposed to us--and yet 'tis only to make these men decide in our favour that we peril in so many ways both our peace and our life.
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