{"id": "card_n_2633b35a2030", "kind": "note", "title": "La Rochefoucauld §laroch_008: The passions are the only advocates which always persuade.", "body": "The passions are the only advocates which always persuade. They are a natural art, the rules of which are infallible; and the simplest man with passion will be more persuasive than the most eloquent without. [See Maxim 249 which is an illustration of this.]", "source": {"label": "François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims (1665)", "url": "/canon.html?ref=larochefoucauld_laroch_008", "ref": "laroch_008", "authority_tier": "external_aligned"}, "shelf": "classics", "box": "larochefoucauld_maxims", "bands": ["larochefoucauld", "maxims", "moralist", "post_christian"], "connections": [{"to_card_id": "card_n_26fd7b06fd21", "relationship": "same_section", "origin": "nesting_2026_06_12"}, {"to_card_id": "card_n_255b2f32e29b", "relationship": "same_section", "origin": "nesting_2026_06_12"}], "author": "engine", "created_at": "2026-05-19T13:20:58.895986+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-05-19T13:20:58.895993+00:00", "visibility": "public", "lifecycle_stage": "public", "volatility": "permanent", "metrics": {"paperclips_count": 0, "helpful_count": 0, "not_helpful_count": 0, "cite_count": 0, "walks_through_count": 0, "flagged_count": 0}, "source_hash": "36710cd92d0fff09f1a7c1897fea076e62644cdaf6557514edd00816da2c49cc", "witnesses": [{"class": "manuscript_tradition", "label": "First edition, Paris 1665 — Barbin imprint", "ref": "LR-1665"}, {"class": "critical_edition", "label": "Pleiade edition — Truchet (Gallimard, 1964)", "ref": "Pleiade-LR"}, {"class": "translation", "label": "Tancock translation (Penguin Classics, 1959)", "ref": "Tancock-1959"}, {"class": "republication", "label": "Project Gutenberg — Maxims", "url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9105", "ref": "PG-9105"}, {"class": "republication", "label": "Internet Archive — multiple editions", "url": "https://archive.org/search?query=la+rochefoucauld+maxims", "ref": "IA-LR"}], "witness_status": "passed", "witness_status_reason": "5 witnesses across 4 independence classes: ['critical_edition', 'manuscript_tradition', 'republication', 'translation']", "surface": "secular"}