Vauvenarges resigned from the army in ill-health in 1744, disappointed in his quest for glory. Before his death he published Introduction à la connaissance de l’᾽esprit humain suivie de réflexions et maximes (Introduction to knowledge of the human spirit, followed by reflections and maxims, 1746), a work greatly admired by Voltaire and others. It turns its back on the pessimism both of Christian writers and of La Rochefoucauld, championing instead man’s Stoicism, his capacity to attain glory, and the human passions.