One of the French moralistes, author of Réflexions ou Sentences et maximes morales (1665, with a more definitive edition of 1678). The Maximes are pithy, often epigrammatic, reflections on human nature, typically written from a disillusioned or cynical point of view. One of La Rochefoucauld’s favourite categories is that of ‘amour propre’, whose workings can be detected across large tracts of human life.