François duc de La Rochefoucauld

Born in Paris in 1613, François de La Rochefoucauld was a French aristocrat, soldier, and writer. He spent much of his early life in the political struggles of the French court and was involved in the conflicts known as the Fronde, experiences that left him injured, disillusioned, and deeply observant about power and human behavior.

He is best known for the Maximes, first published in 1665, a collection of brief reflections on love, pride, ambition, friendship, and self-interest. Their clear, compressed style helped make him one of the best-known moralists in French literature, and many of his sayings have remained famous for centuries.

Later in life, he moved in important literary circles, including the salon of Madame de Sablé, where his writing found its ideal audience. He died in 1680, but his work has endured because it is elegant, skeptical, and often startlingly honest about what people tell themselves and what truly drives them.