Maxims and Reflections

Europe's greatest aphorist, here in a new edition from Rogue Scholar Press with a Foreword by Mart and Introduction by JL De L'Enclos\n“accurately aimed arrows, which hit the mark again and again, the black mark of man’s nature” - Nietzsche\n"Moderation cannot claim the merit of opposing and overcoming Ambition: they are never found together. Moderation is the languor and sloth of the soul, Ambition its activity and heat."\n"No one should be praised for his goodness if he has not strength enough to be wicked. All other goodness is but too often an idleness or powerlessness of will."\n"Weak persons cannot be sincere."\n“La Rochefoucauld is not seeking with the Maximes to raise man to the attainment of a higher condition. But nor is he an amoralist or moral anarchist, instructing followers to abandon virtue. He is the engaged spectator, the mature aristocrat who, having passed from an active life to a largely contemplative one, is able to see in others and in himself the bitter truth of man’s high moral aspirations when they confront reality.” - from the Introduction by JL De L'Enclos