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Duc François de la Rochefoucauld

@rochefoucauld.bsky.social

This account posts maxims from various sources, but chiefly by La Rochefoucauld, the master of the genre. Posts by La R unless otherwise stated. Run by @nowheria.bsky.social

Posts Replies Media

Duc François de la Rochefoucauld @rochefoucauld.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Editions used. The first is the primary one.

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Duc François de la Rochefoucauld @rochefoucauld.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Nec vitia nostra nec remedia pati possumus - We can endure neither our vices nor the remedies for them. - Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, Preface 9.

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Duc François de la Rochefoucauld @rochefoucauld.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." - Lord Acton.

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Duc François de la Rochefoucauld @rochefoucauld.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist." - Bishop Hélder Camara.

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Duc François de la Rochefoucauld @rochefoucauld.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

198. We elevate the glory of some people to demean that of others: and Monsieur the Prince & Monsieur de Turenne would sometimes receive less praise if no one ever wanted to criticise either of them.

'Monsieur the Prince' is Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé (1621-86).

The other figure Rochefoucauld refers to is Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne (1611-75). Condé & Turenne were the most famous French military leaders of the period.

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Duc François de la Rochefoucauld @rochefoucauld.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

"Th'abuse of greatness is when it disjoins Remorse from power." - Brutus, 'Julius Caesar' 2.1.18-19

A b/w picture James Mason looking straight at the viewer in Hollywood Roman dress as Brutus in Joseph L. Mankiewicz' 1953 film of 'Julius Caesar' by William Shakespeare.

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Duc François de la Rochefoucauld @rochefoucauld.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

"The time we have at our disposal everyday is elastic; the passions that we feel expand it, those that we inspire contract it, and habit fills up what remains." - Marcel Proust, 'À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'.

A b&w photo of Marcel Proust looking straight at the camera, with his chin resting in his hand.

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Duc François de la Rochefoucauld @rochefoucauld.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

157. The glory of great men should always be measured against the means they used to acquire it.

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Duc François de la Rochefoucauld @rochefoucauld.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

"Between the certainty I have of my existence and the content I try to give that assurance, the gap will never be filled." - Albert Camus, 'The Myth of Sisyphus'.

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Duc François de la Rochefoucauld @rochefoucauld.bsky.social · 06/04/2024

"Ambition is like love, impatient both of delays and rivals." - Sir John Denham, 'The Sophy', Act II, scene 1.

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Duc François de la Rochefoucauld @rochefoucauld.bsky.social · 01/03/2024

"All of us are creatures of a day: the rememberer and the remembered alike." - Marcus Aurelius, 'Meditations' 4.35

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Duc François de la Rochefoucauld @rochefoucauld.bsky.social · 22/02/2024

"Quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus" - sometimes Homer nods - Horace, 'Ars Poetica', l.359

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