François de La Rochefoucauld
Also known as François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, François, duc de La Rochefoucauld
French author of maxims and memoirs (1613-1680)
AI overview
François de La Rochefoucauld was a 17th-century French writer best known for his sharp, witty observations about human nature collected in a book of maxims—short, memorable statements that often revealed cynical truths about why people really behave the way they do. His work matters because these maxims became influential in European literature and philosophy, shaping how people thought about human motivation and self-interest.
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Person · Open Library
- Born
- 1558
- Died
- 1645
- Works
- 3
Top works
- Lettre de Monsieur enuoye e a Monseigneur de Luyne
- De l'estat ecclesiastiqve
via Open Library + Wikidata
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- SciPy 1.0: fundamental algorithms for scientific computing in Python
· 2020 · cited 34,522x
- PLINK: A Tool Set for Whole-Genome Association and Population-Based Linkage Analyses
· 2007 · cited 30,794x
- The ERA5 global reanalysis
· 2020 · cited 22,639x
Works in European collections
36 objects attributed to François de La Rochefoucauld, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana
Article
François de La Rochefoucauld, 2nd Duke of La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac (/ˈrɒʃfuːkoʊ/; French: [fʁɑ̃swa d(ə) la ʁɔʃfuko]; 15 September 1613 – 17 March 1680) was an accomplished French moralist of the era of French Classical literature and author of Maximes and Memoirs, the only two works of his dense literary œuvre published. His Maximes portrays the callous nature of human conduct, with a cynical attitude towards putative virtue and avowals of affection, friendship, love, and loyalty. Leonard Tancock regards Maximes as "one of the most deeply felt, most intensely lived texts in French literature", with his "experience, his likes and dislikes, sufferings and petty spites ... crystallized into absolute truths".
Born in Paris in 1613, at a time when the royal court was vacillating between aiding the nobility and threatening it, he was considered an exemplar of the accomplished seventeenth-century nobleman. Until 1650, he bore the title of Prince de Marcillac. His great-grandfather François III, de la Rochefoucauld, was killed in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, being a Huguenot.
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1613 births1680 deaths17th-century French letter writers17th-century French male writers17th-century French memoirists17th-century French writersAphoristsDukes of La RochefoucauldFrench male non-fiction writersFrench Roman CatholicsHouse of La RochefoucauldLiterary peersPeople from the Province of Île-de-France
