IN best plays A.N. Ostrovsky, the most interesting are the female characters, in which, with all the individual differences, there is a similarity. Katerina Kabanova from the drama "Thunderstorm" and Larisa Ogudalova from "Dowry" are united by their doom in the environment from which they came out.
In the atmosphere of lies and violence that prevails in The Thunderstorm, only Katerina looks natural, but her sincerity is not needed by others. The true tragedy of the heroine lies in the fact that she is hopelessly alone in this world. Sublime and poetic soul Katerina, soul-bird, there is no place in the city of Kalinov.
Katerina - a firm, strong-willed, resolute and at the same time soft, quivering nature - dies not only because of a collision with " dark kingdom tyrants, but also because, having given vent to the feeling, she violated her moral duty - not so much to her husband, but to herself. Her exactingness to herself is boundless and does not tolerate compromises. The tragedy of Katerina is a tragedy of conscience, a drama of a woman who fell in love, but could not live a lie, bring suffering to people and herself.
Katerina does not know how to lie and deceive. “To live in the world and suffer” she cannot. Where to go? Nowhere. And you can't run from yourself. No one condemned Katerina more mercilessly than herself. The repentance of the heroine led her to death. What else was left for her? Suicide became a deliverance from earthly torments, which seemed to her worse than hellish ...
The Dowry was published nineteen years after The Storm, in 1879. Much has changed during this time in Russia. It would seem that the city of Bryakhimov is in no way comparable to the patriarchal Kalinov. The drowsy silence of the Volga province is now broken not by burlak songs, but by the piercing whistles of steamships.
Ignorant shopkeepers were replaced by industrialists and merchants, managing firms and trading houses, traveling to Paris for an exhibition. But, alas, in a civilized, at first glance, world, cruelty, lies, calculation, injustice reign. highest value here are the money, not the identity of the person.
In the world of buying and selling lives, loves, suffers wonderful person with a "hot heart" - Larisa Ogudalova. The originality, the sublime structure of the soul make her related to Katerina. Larisa does not have a dowry, so Paratov, whom she trustingly and selflessly fell in love with, cannot marry her. But it's not just about dowry. Paratov in this play also appears as an object of bargaining: having squandered his fortune, he is sold to a rich bride. To bear responsibility for the fate of another person (namely, this implies real love) is incapable. All his life Paratov was looking for feelings that bring him pleasure. He deceives Larisa, obeying his own whim, without thinking about future fate this girl.
For Karandyshev, marriage with Larisa is necessary as a means of self-affirmation, a revenge on wounded pride. Who is he? A petty official, bypassed by fortune. "I funny man, he says of himself. But why does he, knowing the pain of offended dignity, offend and humiliate Larisa? Karandyshev is attracted to her only by the desire to prove that he is no worse than Paratov, Knurov, Vozhevatov. And Larisa understands this well.
“Friendship” of Vozhevatov, “loyalty” of Knurov, “love” of Paratov and Karandyshev - everything turns out to be fake. Before Larisa, deeply feeling, thinking, but reduced to the status of a thing, only one way out dawns - death. Therefore, the denouement of "Dowry" is natural.
So, both heroines of Ostrovsky are killed by the cruelty and vulgarity of the surrounding life, the apostasy of the heart's chosen ones. Both Katerina and Larisa are looking for love in life, but they do not find it. Their departure is a protest against a society in which there is no place for sincere feelings.
Recklessness accompanies us all our lives; if anyone seems wise to us, it only means that his folly is in keeping with his age and position.
Prudence and love are not made for each other: as love grows, prudence decreases.
Only those who deserve it are afraid of contempt.
Most of all, it is not intelligence that enlivens conversations, but mutual trust.
Most women give up not because their passion is strong, but because their weakness is great. That is why enterprising men usually have such success, although they are by no means the most attractive.
Most honest women are closed treasures that are intact only because no one has yet searched for them.
Being deceived by friends, we may be indifferent to the manifestations of their friendship, but we must sympathize with them in their misfortunes.
There is such love, which in its highest manifestation leaves no room for jealousy.
There are situations in life that you can get out of them only with the help of a fair amount of recklessness.
In great deeds, one should try not so much to create events as to use those that are presented.
There is everything in red tape, except for love.
In friendship, as in love, what brings happiness more often is what we do not know than what we know.
Politeness is the desire to always be treated with courtesy and to be known as a courteous person.
Generosity neglects everything in order to take possession of everything.
Magnanimity is a noble effort of pride, by which a person masters himself, thereby mastering those around him.
Dignity is an incomprehensible trick of the body, invented to hide the flaws of the mind.
The greatest miracle of love is that it cures coquetry.
The greatest of all flatterers is self-love.
The greatest feat of friendship is not to show a friend our shortcomings, but to open his eyes to his own.
The surest sign high virtues from birth, not to know envy.
A woman in love is more likely to forgive a big indiscretion than a small infidelity.
In love adventures, there is anything but love.
In people, the qualities that they possess are not so funny as those that they claim to be.
To do justice to one's virtues in private is as reasonable as it is ridiculous to exalt them in the presence of others.
Temperance in food is born either by concern for health, or by the inability to eat much.
The so-called generosity is usually based on vanity, which is dearer to us than everything that we give.
IN Everyday life our shortcomings sometimes seem more attractive than our virtues.
There is more selfishness in jealousy than love.
Everyone complains about their memory, but no one complains about their mind.
Everyone knows enough that it is not proper for a man to talk about his wife, but not enough is known that it is still less fitting for him to talk about himself.
Everyone loves to guess others, but no one likes to be guessed.
In serious matters, care should be taken not so much to create favorable opportunities as to seize them.
All passions in general make us make mistakes, but the funniest of them makes us make love.
Everyone wants to gain fame, but no one wants to lose their life; therefore, the brave show no less resourcefulness and intelligence to avoid death than the chisel-makers to increase the fortune.
The only thing that usually prevents us from completely indulging in one vice is that we have several of them.
Everyone praises his heart, but no one dares to give good review about your mind.
While smart people can express a lot in a few words, limited people, on the contrary, have the ability to talk a lot - and say nothing.
There are more flaws in a man's character than in his mind.
The highest virtue is to do in solitude what men only dare to do in the presence of many witnesses.
The highest skill is to know the true price of everything.
Where there is hope, there is fear: fear is always full of hope, hope is always full of fear.
A genius does not have years - he overcomes everything that stops ordinary minds.
A fool cannot be kind: he has too few brains for that.
It is most difficult to speak just when you are ashamed to remain silent.
It is much easier to get to know a person in general than any person in particular.
Pride does not want to be in debt, and pride does not want to pay.
Pride is inherent in all people: the only difference is where and when they show it.
Pride often stirs up envy in us, and that same pride often helps us deal with it.
The fervor, which grows with the years, already borders on recklessness.
A big name does not exalt, but only humiliates the one who does not know how to wear it with honor.
It sometimes takes as much intelligence to take good advice from others as it does to give good advice to yourself.
The longevity of our passions is no more dependent on us than the longevity of life.
It is more difficult to behave with dignity when fate is favorable than when it is hostile.
If we did not flatter ourselves, we would not be spoiled by the flattery of others.
If we were not overcome by pride, we would not complain about the pride of others.
If someone does good to us, we are obliged to patiently endure the evil caused by this person.
If you judge love by its usual manifestations, it is more like enmity than friendship.
If you want to please others, you must talk about what they love and what touches them, avoid arguing about things that they are indifferent to, rarely ask questions and never give a reason to think that you are smarter.
There are people who are destined to be fools: they do stupid things not only for own will but also by the will of fate.
There are people who are so flighty and light-weighted that they cannot have any major flaws or real virtues.
There are people who are so absorbed in themselves that, having fallen in love, they manage to think more about their own love than about the object of their passion.
The desire to arouse pity or admiration is what often forms the basis of our frankness.
A woman remains faithful to her first lover for a long time, unless she takes a second.
It is easier for a woman to overcome her passion than her coquetry.
Women are not aware of the boundlessness of their coquetry.
Envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those who are envied.
Evil, like good, has its heroes.
The abuse of cunning speaks of the limitations of the mind; people who try to cover their nakedness in this way in one place inevitably expose themselves in another.
The refinement of the mind is reflected in the ability to subtly flatter.
Grace for the body is the same as common sense for the mind.
Sometimes people think they hate flattery when they hate only one form or another of it.
Sometimes it is not so painful for us to submit to the coercion of others, as to force ourselves to something.
Other virtues are like sight or hearing: people deprived of these virtues are not able to see and appreciate them in others.
Some people repel, despite all their advantages, while others attract with all their shortcomings.
Other people are like bank notes, which are accepted at the exchange rate, and not at their face value.
Other shortcomings, if skillfully used, sparkle brighter than any virtues.
Some reproaches sound like praise, but other praises are worse than slander.
Sincerity is sincerity. Few people have this quality.
True love is like a ghost: everyone talks about it, but few have seen it.
Truly noble people never brag about anything.
True eloquence is the ability to say all that is needed, and no more than is necessary.
Truly clever people pretend all their lives to abhor cunning, but in reality they simply reserve it for exceptional cases that promise exceptional benefits.
Truly soft can only be people with a strong character; for the rest, apparent softness is most often just weakness, which easily turns into anger.
Truth is the fundamental principle and essence of beauty and perfection; beautiful and perfect only that, having everything that it should have, is truly what it should be.
A true friend is the greatest of blessings, and at the same time that blessing, the acquisition of which is least thought of.
No matter how rare true love true friendship is even rarer.
No matter how perceptive a person is, he cannot comprehend all the evil that he does.
No matter how proud people are of the greatness of their deeds, the latter are often the result not of great plans, but of simple chance.
How natural and at the same time how deceitful is a man's belief that he is loved!
Whatever praises may be lavished upon us, we find nothing new in them.
How few old people in the world know the art of being old!
Just those people who, by all means, always want to be right, most often are wrong.
As soon as a fool praises us, he no longer seems so stupid to us.
How often do people use their minds to do stupid things.
When a woman falls in love for the first time, she loves her lover; in the future, she loves only love.
When people no longer love each other, it is difficult for them to find a reason to break up.
When we succeed in fooling others, they rarely appear to us as fools as we seem to ourselves when others succeed in fooling us.
When vices leave us, we try to convince ourselves that we left them.
When a person loves, he often doubts what he believes in most.
Kings deal with people as with coins: they give them a price as they please, and they have to be valued at the rate, and not at the real price.
The collapse of all the hopes of a person is pleasant both to his friends and enemies.
By old age, people become more reckless - and wiser.
By old age, the shortcomings of the mind become more noticeable, as well as the shortcomings of appearance.
He who has never committed recklessness is not as wise as he thinks.
He who loves very much does not notice for a long time that he is no longer loved.
He who is too diligent in small things usually becomes incapable of great things.
Far more unfortunate is the one who likes no one than the one who does not like anyone.
It is much more useful to study not books, but people.
Easy behavior is least disadvantage women lung behavior.
It is easier to neglect a benefit than to give up a whim.
Flattery is a counterfeit coin that only circulates because of our vanity.
Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice is forced to pay to virtue.
Deprived of insight are not those people who do not reach the goal, but those who pass it by.
Any passion pushes to mistakes, but love pushes to the most stupid ones.
The only reason lovers never miss each other is that they talk about themselves all the time. Love is one, but there are thousands of fakes for it.
Love, like fire, knows no rest: it ceases to live as soon as it ceases to hope or fear.
Love is best compared with a fever: the severity and duration of one and the other do not in the least depend on our will.
Any of our shortcomings is more forgivable than the tricks we go to to hide it.
People are flirtatious when they pretend that any kind of coquetry is alien to them.
The people we love almost always have more power over our souls than we do ourselves.
Small-minded people are sensitive to petty offenses; people of great intelligence notice everything and are not offended by anything.
People who are supposedly noble hide their shortcomings both from others and from themselves, while people who are truly noble are well aware of them and openly declare them.
Narrow-minded people usually condemn everything that is beyond their understanding.
People who are not envious are even rarer than those who are disinterested.
People cannot be consoled when they are deceived by enemies or betrayed by friends; but when they deceive themselves, they are sometimes satisfied.
People not only forget good deeds and insults, but even tend to hate their benefactors and forgive offenders. The need to give thanks for good and to avenge evil seems to them a slavery to which they do not want to submit.
Humans are never inordinately good or inordinately bad.
People usually call friendship spending time together, mutual assistance in business, exchange of favors, in a word, such relationships where selfishness hopes to gain something.
People are willing to be silent if vanity does not induce them to speak.
Men are seldom sensible enough to choose useful reproof over dangerous praise.
People would rather agree to slander themselves than to remain silent about themselves.
People of weak character are not able to be sincere.
People stubbornly disagree with the most sound judgments, not because of a lack of insight, but because of an excess of pride: they see that the first rows in a just cause have been sorted out, but they do not want to occupy the last ones.
People often boast of the most criminal passions, but no one dares to confess to envy, a timid and bashful passion.
People who devote themselves too much to small things usually become incapable of doing big ones.
People who are alien to envy are even rarer than those who are disinterested.
Human quarrels would not last so long if all the blame was on one side.
There are few people so wise as to prefer useful censure to harmful praise.
There are few women in the world whose virtues outlive their beauty.
It is not enough to have outstanding qualities, one must also be able to use them.
Small minds are too offended by trifles, great minds also notice all these trifles, but they are never offended by them.
The world is ruled by fate and whim.
Can a person say with certainty what he wants in the future if he is not able to understand what he wants now.
You can be smarter than someone else, but you can't be smarter than everyone else.
You can give reasonable advice to another, but you cannot teach him reasonable behavior.
You can find women who have never had lovers; but it is difficult to find those who would have only one.
You can have merit and not achieve high position in society, but you cannot achieve it without having at least some merit.
Recklessness can be cured, but a crooked mind cannot be corrected.
A wise man is happy with a little, but a fool is not enough; that is why almost all people are unhappy.
Wisdom is to the soul what health is to the body.
A wise person understands that it is easier to deny yourself a hobby than to fight it later.
In many ways, we remain beginners, regardless of age, and we often lack experience, despite the number of years we have lived.
We always love those who admire us, but we do not always love those we admire.
We are afraid of everything, as befits mortals, and we want everything, as if we were rewarded with immortality.
We are entering different ages our lives, like newborns, with no experience behind us, no matter how old we are.
We would win in the eyes of people if we appeared to them as we always were and are, and did not pretend to be such as we never were and never will be.
We easily forget our mistakes when they are known only to us alone.
We try less to be happy than to appear so.
We cannot fall in love again with those whom we once really stopped loving.
We do not indulge entirely in one vice, most often because you have several of them.
We are often indulgent towards those who burden us, but we are never condescending to those who are burdened by us.
We don't give away anything as generously as advice.
We willingly forgive our friends shortcomings that do not hurt us.
We readily admit to small shortcomings, wishing to say by this that we have no more important ones.
We help people so that they, in turn, help us; thus, our services are reduced simply to the benefits that we do to ourselves ahead of time.
We are outraged by people who are cunning with us because they consider themselves smarter than us.
We are so fickle in friendship because it is difficult to know the properties of the soul of a person and it is easy to know the properties of the mind.
We do not despise those who have vices, but those who have no virtues.
We rarely fully understand what we really want.
We resist our passions not because we are strong, but because they are weak.
We try to take credit for those shortcomings that we do not want to correct.
We consider sane only those people who agree with us on everything.
We are so intolerant of other people's vanity that it hurts our own.
We are so used to pretending to others that in the end we begin to pretend to ourselves.
We usually praise others only to hear our own praise.
We often look for poisoned praises that indirectly reveal in those whom we praise such defects that we dare not point out directly.
We often stigmatize other people's shortcomings, but rarely, using their example, correct our own.
Hope, however deceptive it may be, nevertheless serves to bring our life to an end along a pleasant path.
Each person, as well as each act, should be looked at from a certain distance.
Some can be understood by looking at them up close, while others become understandable only from a distance.
We are given joy not by what surrounds us, but by our attitude towards the environment, and we are happy having what we love, and not what others consider worthy of love. It is easier for us to love those who hate us than those who love more than we want.
We like to endow ourselves with vices opposite to those we actually have; weak-willed people, for example, like to show off their stubbornness.
We are almost always bored with those people with whom we are not supposed to be bored.
We are almost always bored with those who are bored with us.
We should be surprised only by our ability to be surprised at anything else.
There are few unattainable things in the world; if we had more perseverance, we could find a way to almost any goal.
Ridicule is often a sign of the poverty of the mind: it comes to the rescue when good arguments are lacking.
In the old age of love, as in the old age of years, people still live for sorrows, but no longer live for pleasures.
True friendship does not know envy, and true love does not know coquetry.
Is our peace of mind or confusion depend not so much on major events our life, how much from a combination of everyday trifles, successful or unpleasant for us.
Our remorse is usually not so much remorse for the wrong we have done, but fear of the wrong that might be done to us in return.
Our self-esteem suffers more when our tastes are condemned than when our views are condemned. Our enemies are much closer to the truth in their judgments about us than we are ourselves.
Our virtues are most often artfully disguised vices.
Our whims are far more bizarre than the whims of fate.
Our passions are often the offspring of other passions, directly opposed to them: avarice sometimes leads to extravagance, and extravagance to avarice; people are often stubborn out of weakness of character and brave out of cowardice.
Our mind is lazier than the body.
If we did not have shortcomings, we would not be so pleased to notice them in our neighbors.
There are no circumstances so unfortunate that an intelligent person cannot derive some advantage from them, but there are no such happy circumstances that a reckless person cannot turn them against himself.
It is not a great misfortune to serve the ungrateful, but it is a great misfortune to accept a service from a scoundrel.
Infidelity should kill love, and one should not be jealous when there are grounds for this: only those who try not to cause it are worthy of jealousy.
The equanimity that those condemned to death sometimes show, as well as the contempt for death, speaks only of the fear of looking directly into her eyes; therefore, it can be said that both are to their minds what a blindfold is to their eyes.
The equanimity of the sages is just the ability to hide their feelings in the depths of their hearts.
Not every person who has known the depths of his mind has known the depths of his heart.
We prevent our friends from looking into the depths of our hearts, not so much out of distrust of them as out of distrust of ourselves.
It is more shameful not to trust friends than to be deceived by them.
Flaws are sometimes more forgivable than the means used to hide them.
Not to notice the cooling of people means little appreciation of their friendship.
One who is always smart in the same way cannot be liked for a long time.
A man who has never been in danger cannot be held accountable for his courage.
Hatred and flattery are pitfalls against which truth breaks.
Hatred for people who have fallen into mercy is caused by love for this very mercy.
The extraordinary pleasure with which we talk about ourselves should make us suspect that our interlocutors do not at all share it.
The inexorable severity of behavior is contrary to female nature.
Often we would have to be ashamed of our very noble deeds if others knew our motives.
We should not be offended by people who have hidden the truth from us: we ourselves constantly hide it from ourselves.
It is incomparably easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy everything.
Truth is not so beneficent as its appearance is harmful.
There are no more insufferable fools than those who are not completely devoid of mind.
There is no surer way to kindle a passion in another than to keep the cold yourself.
There is no quality rarer than true kindness: most people who consider themselves kind are only condescending or weak.
There is nothing more stupid than the desire to always be smarter than everyone else.
There are no such people who, having ceased to love, would not begin to be ashamed of past love.
In no passion does self-love reign so completely as in love; people are always ready to sacrifice the peace of a loved being, if only to preserve their own.
There is nowhere to find peace for those who have not found it in themselves.
No pretense will help to hide love for a long time when it is, or portray it when it is not.
No imagination can come up with such a multitude of contradictory feelings as usually coexist in one human heart.
No one rushes others as much as lazy people: having gratified their laziness, they want to appear diligent.
No flatterer flatters as skillfully as selfishness.
Nothing interferes with naturalness so much as the desire to appear natural.
You need to have a great mind in order to be able not to show your mental superiority.
Usually happiness comes to the happy, and unhappiness to the unfortunate.
The narrowness of our mind leads to stubbornness: we are reluctant to believe what is beyond our horizons.
It is equally difficult to please someone who loves very much, and someone who no longer loves at all.
Some people have their shortcomings, while others do not even have dignity.
Selfishness blinds some, opens the eyes of others.
A person's worth should not be judged by his good qualities but by how he uses them.
When we are completely bored, we stop being bored.
The most dangerous are those evil people who are not entirely devoid of kindness.
It is dangerous to reproach those who want to be healed of timidity.
The charm of newness in love is like the flowering of fruit trees: it quickly fades and never returns.
With age, people become both dumber and smarter at the same time.
Truly dexterous is he who knows how to hide his dexterity.
Truly extraordinary virtues are possessed by those who have managed to earn the praise of their envious people.
The ostentatious simplicity is a refined hypocrisy.
As long as people love, they forgive.
As long as a person is able to do good, he is not in danger of encountering ingratitude.
Sometimes there are fools and smart; but they are never so in their right mind.
Vices enter into the composition of virtues, as poisons enter into the composition of medicines; prudence confuses them, weakens their effect, and then skillfully uses them as a remedy against life's misfortunes.
The vices of the soul are like the wounds of the body: no matter how carefully they are treated, they still leave scars and can open again at any moment.
Sometimes bad qualities make great talents.
Sometimes it is easier to endure the deceit of the one you love than to hear the whole truth from him.
A decent woman is a hidden treasure; having found it, a wise man will not boast of it.
A decent person can be in love like a madman, but not like a fool.
Constancy in love is of two kinds: we are constant or because we constantly find new qualities in a loved one, worthy of love, or because we consider constancy a duty of honor.
Constancy deserves neither praise nor censure, for it manifests the stability of tastes and feelings, which does not depend on our will.
Praise for kindness is worthy only of a person who has enough strength of character to sometimes be evil; otherwise, kindness most often speaks only of inactivity or lack of will.
Betrayals are committed most often not by deliberate intent, but by weakness of character.
Philosophers' contempt for wealth was caused by their secret desire to take revenge on unfair fate for not rewarding them with life's blessings according to their merits; it was a secret remedy from the humiliations of poverty, and a roundabout way to the honor usually brought by wealth.
The habit of constantly being cunning is a sign of a limited mind, and it almost always happens that he who resorts to cunning to cover himself in one place opens up in another.
Confessing to small shortcomings, we thereby try to convince others that we do not have large ones.
A sign of the true dignity of a man is that even those who are envious of him are compelled to praise him.
Decency is the least important of all the laws of society and the most honored.
An example is contagious, therefore all the benefactors of the human race and all the villains find imitators.
We imitate good deeds out of a sense of emulation, but bad deeds out of innate malice, which experience held back, and example unleashed.
Reconciliation with enemies only speaks of fatigue from the struggle, fear of defeat and the desire to take a more advantageous position.
Pretending that we have fallen into a trap set for us, we show a truly refined cunning, because it is easiest to deceive a person when he wants to deceive us.
To hurt people for the most part not so dangerous as doing them too much good.
It is much easier to show wisdom in other people's affairs than in one's own.
The splendor of funeral rites does not so much perpetuate the dignity of the dead, as it pleases the vanity of the living.
The indifference of old age is no more conducive to the salvation of the soul than the ardor of youth.
Separation weakens a slight infatuation, but strengthens a great passion, just as the wind extinguishes a candle, but kindles a fire.
A jealous wife is sometimes even pleasant to her husband: at least he always hears talk about the object of his love.
Jealousy is always born with love, but it does not always die with it.
Jealousy feeds on doubt; it dies or goes berserk as soon as doubt turns into certainty.
The most bizarre recklessness is usually the product of the most refined mind.
The bravest and most reasonable people- these are those who, under any plausible pretext, try not to think about death.
The most beautiful gift given to people after wisdom is friendship.
Self-interest speaks all languages and plays any role, even the role of selflessness.
Self-interest brings into play all the virtues and all the vices.
With our distrust, we justify someone else's deceit.
The strength and weakness of the spirit are simply incorrect expressions: in reality, there is only a good or bad condition of the organs of the body.
Strongly hinders being smart zealous desire to show off like that.
Modesty enhances dignity and excuses mediocrity.
Weakness of character often consoles us in such misfortunes, in which the mind is powerless to console.
Weakness of character is the only flaw that cannot be corrected.
The glory of great men must always be measured by the ways in which it has been achieved.
Too much hatred puts us below those we hate.
Ridiculous things do more damage to honor than dishonor itself.
Humility often turns out to be a feigned humility, the purpose of which is to subjugate others; it is the trick of pride, which lowers itself in order to exalt itself...
Compassion is often the ability to see one's own misfortunes in others, it is a premonition of disasters that can befall us too.
Fate should be treated like health: when it favors us, enjoy it, and when it starts to be capricious, wait patiently, without resorting to potent means without special need.
That's why old people love to give good advice that are no longer capable of setting bad examples.
Old age is a tyrant who, on pain of death, forbids us all the pleasures of youth.
Old madmen are even madder than young ones.
Passions are the only orators whose arguments are always convincing; their art is born, as it were, by nature itself and is based on immutable laws. Therefore, a person who is unsophisticated, but carried away by passion, can convince more quickly than an eloquent, but indifferent one.
Passion often turns smart person into a fool, but no less often endows fools with intelligence.
Such injustice and such selfishness are inherent in passions that it is dangerous to trust them and one should beware of them even when they seem quite reasonable.
Fate arranges everything for the benefit of those whom it patronizes.
Fate corrects our shortcomings, which even reason could not correct.
Fate is considered blind mainly by those to whom it does not bestow good luck.
The judgments of our enemies about us are closer to the truth than our own.
There is a degree of happiness and sorrow that is beyond our ability to feel.
There are different cures for love, but none is reliable.
Happy people are incorrigible: fate does not punish them for sins, and therefore they consider themselves sinless.
We experience happiness and unhappiness in proportion to our selfishness.
The happiness and unhappiness of a person depend as much on his temper as on fate.
The happiness of love lies in loving; people are happier when they themselves experience passion than when it is instilled.
It is just as easy to deceive oneself and not notice it, as it is difficult to deceive another and not be exposed.
Those who happened to experience great passions, then all their lives rejoice at their healing, and grieve about it.
The torments of jealousy are the most painful of human torments, and, moreover, least of all inspire sympathy for the one who inflicts them.
Only a combination of circumstances reveals our essence to others and, most importantly, to ourselves.
Only great people have great vices.
Only by being able to listen and respond, you can be a good conversationalist.
The one who fell out of love is usually to blame for not noticing it in time.
Whoever thinks he can do without others is greatly mistaken; but he who thinks that others cannot do without him is still more mistaken.
The one who is cured of love first is always cured more fully.
What people usually call friendship is, in essence, only an alliance, the purpose of which is the mutual preservation of benefits and the exchange of good offices, the most disinterested friendship is nothing but a deal in which our pride always expects to win something.
What we take for nobility often turns out to be disguised ambition, which, despising small benefits, goes straight to big ones.
What we take for virtue is often a combination of selfish desires and deeds artfully chosen by fate or our own cunning; so, for example, sometimes women are chaste, and men are valorous, not at all because they are really characterized by chastity and valor.
Cowards usually do not realize the full force of their fear.
Vanity causes us to act contrary to our tastes much more often than the dictates of reason.
Vanity, shame, and most importantly, temperament - this is what usually underlies male prowess and female virtue.
For most people, the love of justice is simply the fear of being exposed to injustice.
In great people, contempt for death is caused by a blinding love for glory, and in simple people, by a limitation that does not allow them to comprehend the full depth of the misfortune that awaits them and makes it possible to think about extraneous things.
Self-confidence forms the basis of our confidence in others.
Praise avoidance is a request to repeat it.
Human virtues, like fruits, have their seasons.
The mind is always fooled by the heart.
The ability to deftly use mediocre abilities does not inspire respect - and yet often brings people more glory than true dignity.
Smart is not the one whom chance makes smart, but the one who understands what the mind is, knows how to recognize it and admires it.
Moderation happy people comes from the tranquility bestowed by unfailing good fortune.
An intelligent person would often find himself in a difficult situation if he were not surrounded by fools.
A limited but sound mind, after all, is not so tiresome in an interlocutor as a broad but confused mind.
The mind sometimes serves us only in order to boldly do stupid things.
The mind of most women serves not so much to strengthen their prudence, but to justify their recklessness.
The mind cannot play the role of the heart for long.
We have more strength than will, and we often, just to justify ourselves in our own eyes, find many things impossible for us.
We will always have enough strength to endure the misfortune of our neighbor.
We lack the strength of character to dutifully follow all the dictates of reason.
Stubbornness is the offspring of stupidity, ignorance and arrogance.
Human characters, like some buildings, have several facades, and not all of them are pleasant to look at.
Physical labor helps to forget about moral suffering.
Philosophy triumphs over the sorrows of the past and future, but the sorrows of the present triumph over philosophy.
Cunning and betrayal testify only to a lack of dexterity.
Cunning is a sign of a narrow mind.
Good taste speaks not so much of intelligence as of clarity of judgment.
Listening well and responding well is one of the greatest perfections possible in conversation.
Although everyone considers mercy a virtue, it is sometimes born of vanity, often of laziness, often of fear, and almost always of both.
The chastity of women is for the most part simply concern for a good name and peace.
Most often, those people who are firmly convinced of universal sympathy cause hostility.
Most often, those people who feel that they cannot be a burden to anyone are a burden to those around them.
A person is never as unhappy as he thinks, or as happy as he wants.
It is easier for a man to seem worthy of a position he does not hold than of one in which he is.
No matter how we explain our disappointments, most often they are based on deceived self-interest or wounded vanity.
Pure and free from the influence of other passions is only that love that is hidden in the depths of our heart and unknown to us ourselves.
Sincerely praising good works means taking part in them to some extent.
Excessive haste in paying for a service rendered is a kind of ingratitude.
In order to justify ourselves in our own eyes, we often convince ourselves that we are unable to achieve the goal; in fact, we are not powerless, but weak-willed.
To become a great man, you need to be able to skillfully use everything that fate offers.
Youth is like intoxication, something like a feverish mind.
Youth changes its tastes because of the ardor of feelings, and old age keeps them unchanged by habit.
Young men often think that they are natural, when in fact they are simply ill-mannered and rude.
It is easier to know people in general than one person in particular.
No matter how deceptive hope is, it still leads us on an easy path until the end of our days.
We find several solutions to the same question, not so much because our mind is very prolific, but because it is not very far-sighted and, instead of settling on the best solution, presents us indiscriminately all the possibilities at once.
Stubbornness is born from the limitations of our mind: we are reluctant to believe what is beyond our horizons.
It takes unshakable courage to enter into a conspiracy, but ordinary courage is enough to endure the dangers of war.
As rare as true love is, real friendship occurs even less frequently.
There are many women in the world who have never had a single love affair, but there are very few who have only one.
There are few decent women in the world who would not be ashamed of their virtue.
Most women are so indifferent to friendship because it seems to them insipid in comparison with love.
Constancy in love is an eternal inconsistency that encourages us to be carried away in turn by all the qualities of a loved one, giving preference first to one of them, then to another; thus, constancy turns out to be impermanence, but limited, that is, concentrated on one subject.
A truly worthy person can be in love like a madman, but not like a fool.
The firmness of character makes people resist love, but at the same time it gives this feeling ardor and duration; weak people, on the contrary, are easily ignited by passion, but almost never give themselves up to it with their heads.
Envy is even more irreconcilable than hatred.
There are people who are so absorbed in themselves that, having fallen in love, they manage to think more about their own love than about the object of their passion.
The thirst to deserve the praises lavished upon us strengthens our virtue; thus, the praises of our mind, valor and beauty make us smarter, more valiant and more beautiful.
The gratitude of most people is generated by a hidden desire to achieve even greater benefits.
People's mistakes in their calculations of gratitude for the services rendered by them come from the fact that the pride of the giver and the pride of the receiver cannot agree on the price of the good deed.
There are successful marriages, but there are no delightful marriages.
Why do we remember in great detail what happened to us, but are not able to remember how many times we told the same person about it?
People who believe in their own merits consider it their duty to be unhappy, in order to convince others and themselves that fate has not yet repaid them as they deserved.
Before wishing strongly for something, one should inquire whether the current owner of the desired is very happy.
Our envy is always more durable than someone else's happiness, which we envy.
Our sincerity in no small part is caused by the desire to talk about ourselves and put our shortcomings in a favorable light.
We are more willing to admit to laziness than to our other shortcomings; we inspired ourselves that she, without inflicting great damage other virtues, only moderates their manifestation.
Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue.
No matter how pleasant love is, yet it external manifestations give us more joy than she herself.
Few mistakes are less excusable than the means we use to cover them up.
How clearly people understand their mistakes is evident from the fact that, talking about their behavior, they always know how to put it in a noble light.
Our actions are like the lines of a burime: each connects them with what he pleases.
Sometimes, by shedding tears, we deceive not only others, but also ourselves.
Neither the sun nor death can be looked at point-blank.
Old age is hell for women.
Although the destinies of people are very dissimilar, but some balance in the distribution of blessings and misfortunes, as it were, equalizes them among themselves.
We are tormented not so much by the desire for happiness as by the desire to be known as lucky.
Moderation in life is similar to abstinence in food: I would eat more, but it’s terrible to get sick.
Democracy is dying not because of the weakness of the laws, but because of the weakness of the democrats.
Gratitude is just a secret hope for further approval.
As long as we strive to help people, we rarely meet with ingratitude.
It is not a great misfortune to serve the ungrateful, but it is a great misfortune to accept a service from a scoundrel.
As a punishment for original sin, God allowed man to create an idol out of selfishness, so that it tormented him in all life's paths.
There are quite a lot of people who despise wealth, but give it little away.
What a boring disease it is to protect your health with an overly strict regimen.
Why do we remember in great detail what happened to us, but are unable to remember how many times we told the same person about it?
Small minds have the gift of talking much and saying nothing.
Bodily pain is the only evil that the mind can neither weaken nor heal.
Marriage is the only war during which you sleep with the enemy.
Generosity is the understanding of pride and the surest means of obtaining praise.
Generosity is quite aptly defined by its name; moreover, it can be said that it is the common sense of pride and the most worthy way to good fame.
Having ceased to love, we rejoice when they cheat on us, thereby freeing us from the need to be faithful.
In serious matters, care should be taken not so much to create favorable opportunities as to seize them.
Our enemies are much closer to the truth in their judgments about us than we are ourselves.
Arrogance is, in essence, the same pride, loudly declaring its presence.
There is nothing more stupid than the desire to always be smarter than everyone else.
There are no more insufferable fools than those who are not completely devoid of mind.
Pride is common to all people; the only difference is how and when they show it.
Pride always recovers its losses and loses nothing, even when it gives up vanity.
Pride does not want to be indebted, and pride does not want to pay.
Pride, playing human comedy all the roles in a row and, as if tired of their tricks and transformations, suddenly appears with open face arrogantly tearing off his mask.
If we were not overcome by pride, we would not complain about the pride of others.
Not kindness, but pride, usually leads us to admonish people who have committed wrongdoings.
The most dangerous consequence of pride is blindness: it supports and strengthens it, preventing us from finding means that would ease our sorrows and help us heal from vices.
Pride has a thousand faces, but the most skillful and most deceitful of them is humility.
Luxury and excessive sophistication predict certain death for the state, for they testify that all private individuals are concerned only about their own good, not at all caring about the public good.
The highest virtue is to do in solitude what people usually decide to do only in the presence of many witnesses.
Supreme prowess and irresistible cowardice are extremes that are very rare. Between them, on a vast expanse, are every possible shade of courage, as diverse as human faces and characters. the fear of death to some extent limits valor.
The highest virtue is to do in solitude what men only dare to do in the presence of many witnesses.
For simple soldier prowess is a dangerous trade, which he undertakes in order to earn his livelihood.
Everyone praises their kindness, but no one dares to praise his intelligence.
Where good ends, evil begins, and where evil ends, good begins.
Praise for kindness is worthy only of a person who has enough strength of character to sometimes be evil; otherwise, kindness most often speaks only of inactivity or lack of will.
Everyone looks at his duty as an annoying overlord, from whom he would like to get rid of.
The evil we do brings us less hatred and persecution than our virtues.
The surest sign of innate high virtues is the absence of innate envy.
It is more shameful not to trust friends than to be deceived by them.
Not noticing the cooling of friends means little appreciation of their friendship.
Appreciate not what good your friend does, but appreciate his willingness to do you good.
The heat of friendship warms the heart without burning it.
We are so fickle in friendship because it is difficult to know the properties of the soul of a person and it is easy to know the properties of the mind.
Love for the soul of the lover means the same as the soul for the body, which it inspires.
Pity is nothing else than a shrewd foresight of disasters that may befall us too.
A far-sighted person must determine a place for each of his desires and then fulfill them in order. Our greed often disturbs this order and causes us to pursue so many goals at the same time that in chasing trifles we miss the essential.
We are afraid of everything, as befits mortals, and we want everything, as if we were rewarded with immortality.
Before wishing strongly for something, one should inquire whether the current owner of the desired is very happy.
Women are more likely to overcome their passion than their coquetry.
There are many such women in the world who have not had a single love affair in their lives, but very few who have had only one.
A woman in love is more likely to forgive a greater indiscretion than a small infidelity.
There are situations in life from which you can get out only with the help of a fair amount of recklessness.
Moderation in life is similar to abstinence in food: I would eat more, but it’s scary to get sick.
They envy only those with whom they do not hope to be equal.
Our envy always lives longer than the happiness we envy.
Envy is even more irreconcilable than hatred.
What a boring disease it is to protect your health with an overly strict regimen!
The miserly fallacy is that they consider gold and silver to be goods, while they are only means for acquiring goods.
The desire to talk about oneself and show one's shortcomings only from the side from which it is most beneficial to us - that's main reason our sincerity.
Truth is not so beneficent as its appearance is harmful.
No flatterer flatters as skillfully as pride.
Pride never hypocrites so skillfully as hiding under the guise of humility.
The highest skill is to know the true price of everything.
Behind the aversion to lies often lies a hidden desire to give weight to our statements and to inspire reverent confidence in our words.
As long as we love, we can forgive.
True love is like a ghost: everyone talks about it, but few have seen it.
No matter how pleasant love is, yet its external manifestations give us more joy than love itself.
Love is one, but there are thousands of fakes for it.
Love, like fire, knows no rest: it ceases to live as soon as it ceases to hope and fear.
Love covers with its name the most diverse human relations, supposedly connected with it, although in reality it participates in them no more than rain in the events taking place in Venice.
Many would never fall in love if they had not heard about love.
It is equally difficult to please someone who loves very much, and someone who no longer loves at all.
The one who is cured of love first is always cured more fully.
Everyone complains about their memory, but no one complains about their mind.
There are people with virtues, but nasty, while others, though with flaws, but cause sympathy.
There are people who are destined to be stupid: they do stupid things not only of their own free will, but also by the will of fate.
Truly clever people pretend all their lives that they abhor cunning, but in reality they simply save it for exceptional cases that promise exceptional benefits.
Only people with a strong character can be truly soft: for the rest, apparent softness is in reality just a weakness that easily turns into quarrelsomeness.
No matter how people boast of the greatness of their deeds, the latter are often the result not of great plans, but simply by chance.
When people love, they forgive.
People who believe in their own merits consider it their duty to be unhappy, in order to convince others and themselves that fate has not yet repaid them as they deserved.
People sometimes call friendship spending time together, mutual assistance in business, exchange of favors. In a word, such relationships where selfishness hopes to gain something.
People could not live in society if they did not lead each other by the nose.
People not only forget good deeds and insults, but even tend to hate their benefactors and forgive offenders.
People often boast of the most criminal passions, but no one dares to confess to envy, a timid and bashful passion.
Human attachment has the peculiarity of changing with the change of happiness.
Human quarrels would not last so long if all the blame was on one side.
A wise man is happy with a little, but a fool is not enough; that is why almost all people are unhappy.
Sometimes revolutions take place in society that change both its fate and the tastes of people.
What people call virtue is usually only a ghost created by their lusts and wearing such high name so that they can follow their desires with impunity.
The temperance of happy people comes from the calmness bestowed by unfailing good fortune.
Although the destinies of people are very dissimilar, but a certain balance in the distribution of blessings and misfortunes, as it were, equalizes them among themselves.
The world is ruled by fate and whim.
Youth changes its tastes due to hot blood, but the old man retains his own due to habit.
Young men often think that they are natural, when in fact they are simply ill-mannered and rude.
If you want to great art in order to speak out in time, it is no small art to remain silent in time.
For those who do not trust themselves, it is wiser to remain silent.
Wisdom is to the soul what health is to the body.
It is much easier to show wisdom in other people's affairs than in one's own.
The collapse of all the hopes of a person is pleasant both to his friends and enemies.
In everyday life, our shortcomings sometimes seem more attractive than our virtues.
Powerlessness is the only flaw that cannot be corrected.
Dignity is an incomprehensible property of the body, invented in order to hide the lack of the mind.
Pretending importance is a special demeanor invented for the benefit of those who have to hide a lack of intelligence.
If we did not have shortcomings, we would not be so pleased to notice them in our neighbors.
The secret pleasure of knowing that people see how unhappy we are often reconciles us to our misfortunes.
With our distrust, we justify someone else's deceit.
We love to judge people for the things they judge us for.
There is nowhere to find peace for those who have not found it in themselves.
The highest sanity of the least sane people consists in the ability to obediently follow the reasonable dictates of others.
The possession of several vices prevents us from completely surrendering to one of them.
Our actions seem to be born under a lucky or unlucky star; to her they owe most of the praise or blame that falls to their lot.
We should not be offended by people who have hidden the truth from us: we ourselves constantly hide it from ourselves.
Betrayals are most often committed not by deliberate intent, but by weakness of character.
It is easier to neglect a benefit than to give up a whim.
Our whims are far more bizarre than the whims of fate.
The wind blows out the candle, but blows out the fire.
Nature, in its concern for our happiness, not only rationally arranged the organs of our body, but also gave us pride, apparently in order to save us from the sad consciousness of our imperfection.
It is never more difficult to speak well than when it is shameful to remain silent.
Separation weakens a slight infatuation, but strengthens a great passion, just as the wind extinguishes a candle, but kindles a fire.
What praises are given to prudence! However, it is not able to save us even from the most insignificant vicissitudes of fate.
Everyone complains about their memory, but no one complains about their mind.
Jealousy is to some extent reasonable and just, because it wants to preserve our property or what we consider as such, while envy is blindly indignant at the fact that our neighbors have some property.
Jealousy feeds on doubt; it dies or goes berserk as soon as doubt turns into certainty.
Jealousy is always born with love, but it does not always die with it.
Modesty is the worst form of vanity
It is given to few people to comprehend what death is; in most cases, it is not done out of deliberate intention, but out of stupidity and according to established custom, and people most often die because they cannot resist death.
Neither the sun nor death can be looked at point-blank.
It is better to laugh without being happy than to die without laughing.
You can give advice, but you can not give the mind to use it.
Most often, compassion is the ability to see one's own misfortunes in others, it is a premonition of disasters that can befall us too. We help people so that they can help us in turn; thus, our services are reduced simply to the benefits that we do to ourselves ahead of time.
The justice of a moderate judge testifies only to his love for his high position.
For most people, the love of justice is simply the fear of being exposed to injustice.
Love for justice is born of the liveliest anxiety, lest someone take away our property from us; it is this which induces people to guard the interests of their neighbor so carefully, to respect them so carefully, and to avoid unjust acts so diligently. This fear forces them to be content with the blessings granted to them by birthright or the whim of fate, and if it were not for it, they would incessantly raid other people's possessions.
Old people are so fond of giving good advice because they are no longer able to set bad examples.
Old age is hell for women.
The strength of all our passions depends on how cold or hot our blood is.
Passions are the only orators whose arguments are always convincing.
Everything that fate sends us, we evaluate depending on the mood.
It is more difficult to behave with dignity when fate is favorable than when it is hostile.
Fate arranges everything for the benefit of those whom it patronizes.
Fate sometimes picks up various human misdeeds so skillfully that virtues are born from them.
Fate is considered blind mainly by those to whom it does not bestow good luck.
Only knowing in advance our fate, we could vouch for our behavior in advance.
The happiness and unhappiness of a person depends as much on his temper as on fate.
How can we demand that someone keep our secret if we cannot keep it ourselves?
There are so many varieties of vanity that it is not worth counting.
Self-confidence forms the basis of our confidence in others.
The mind sometimes serves us only to boldly do stupid things.
Courtesy of the mind consists in the ability to think with dignity and refinement.
Good taste speaks not so much of intelligence as of clarity of judgment.
Stubbornness is born from the limitations of our mind: we are reluctant to believe what is beyond our horizons.
Philosophy triumphs over the sorrows of the past and future, but the sorrows of the present triumph over philosophy.
We lack the strength of character to dutifully follow all the dictates of reason.
You can be smarter than someone else, but you can't be smarter than everyone else.
In the human heart there is a continuous change of passions, and the extinction of one of them almost always means the triumph of the other.
It is much easier to get to know a person in general than any one in particular.
No matter what advantages nature has endowed a person with, she can create a hero out of him only by calling on fate for help.
Can a person say with certainty what he wants in the future if he is not able to understand what he wants now?
The merits of a man should not be judged by his great virtues, but by the way he uses them.
Self-love is a person's love for himself and for everything that makes up his good.
A person is never as happy or as unhappy as it seems to him.
A person incapable of a great crime finds it hard to believe that others are quite capable of it.
hide our true feelings more difficult than depicting non-existent ones.
on other topics
Decency is the least important duty, and is observed more strictly than all others.
Only those who deserve it are afraid of contempt.
The thirst to deserve the praises lavished upon us strengthens our virtue; thus, the praises of our mind, valor and beauty make us smarter, more valiant and more beautiful.
Grace is to the body what common sense is to the mind.
We are usually driven to new acquaintances not so much by fatigue from old ones or by a love of change, as by dissatisfaction with the fact that people we know well do not admire us enough, and the hope that people who know little will admire us more.
He who is not capable of great things is scrupulous in trifles.
Affection comes more often from a vain mind that seeks praise than from a pure heart.
It is not enough to have outstanding qualities, one must also be able to use them.
We scold ourselves only to be praised.
We are always afraid to show ourselves to the one we love, after we happened to be attracted on the side.
Our self-esteem suffers more when our tastes are condemned than when our views are condemned.
It is a mistake to think that we can do without others, but it is even more mistaken to think that others could not do without us.
Truly dexterous is he who knows how to hide his dexterity.
Praise is useful if only because it strengthens us in virtuous intentions.
Before we dedicate our heart to achieving any goal, let's see how happy those who have already achieved that goal are.
The moderation of the one who favors fate is usually either the fear of being ridiculed for arrogance, or the fear of losing what has been acquired.
Moderation is the fear of envy or contempt, which becomes the lot of everyone who is blinded by his happiness; it is vain boasting of the power of the mind.
In order to justify ourselves in our own eyes, we often convince ourselves that we are unable to achieve the goal. In fact, we are not powerless, but weak-willed.
I want to eat and sleep.
La Rochefoucauld François: Maxims and Moral Reflections and Test: Sayings of La Rochefoucauld
"The gifts with which the Lord has endowed people are as diverse as the trees with which he adorned the earth, and each has special properties and bears only its inherent fruits. That is why the best pear tree will never give birth to even the worst apples, and the most gifted person he succumbs to a matter, albeit an ordinary one, but given only to those who are capable of this business.And therefore, to compose aphorisms, without having at least a slight talent for this kind of occupation, is no less ridiculous than to expect that in a garden where no bulbs are planted, bulbs will bloom tulips." - Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"While smart people can express a lot in a few words, limited people, on the contrary, have the ability to talk a lot - and say nothing." - F. La Rochefoucauld
Francois VI de La Rochefoucauld (fr. François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld, September 15, 1613, Paris - March 17, 1680, Paris), Duke de La Rochefoucauld - French writer, author of philosophical and moralistic works. He belonged to the southern French family of La Rochefoucauld. The leader of the Fronde wars. During the life of his father (until 1650) he bore the courtesy title Prince de Marsillac. Great-grandson of that François de La Rochefoucauld, who was killed on the night of St. Bartholomew.
François de La Rochefoucauld belonged to one of the most distinguished noble families France. Military and court career, to which he was assigned, did not require college education. La Rochefoucauld acquired his extensive knowledge already in adulthood through independent reading. Got in 1630. to the court, he immediately found himself in the thick of political intrigues.
Origin and family traditions determined his orientation - he took the side of Queen Anne of Austria against Cardinal Richelieu, who was hated by him as a persecutor of the ancient aristocracy. Participation in the struggle of these is far from equal forces brought him into disgrace, deportation to his possessions and a short-term imprisonment in the Bastille. After the death of Richelieu (1642) and Louis XIII (1643), Cardinal Mazarin came to power, very unpopular in all segments of the population. The feudal nobility tried to regain their lost rights and influence. Dissatisfaction with the rule of Mazarin resulted in 1648. in open rebellion against royalty- Fronde. La Rochefoucauld took an active part in it. He was closely associated with the highest-ranking frondeurs - the Prince of Condé, the Duke de Beaufort and others, and could closely observe their morals, selfishness, lust for power, envy, self-interest and treachery, which manifested themselves on different stages movement. In 1652 The Fronde suffered a final defeat, the authority of the royal power was restored, and the participants in the Fronde were partially bought with concessions and handouts, partially subjected to disgrace and punishment.
La Rochefoucauld, among the latter, was forced to go to his possessions in Angumois. It was there, away from political intrigues and passions, that he began to write his Memoirs, which he did not originally intend to publish. In them, he gave an undisguised picture of the events of the Fronde and a description of its participants. At the end of the 1650s. he returned to Paris, was favorably received at court, but completely departed from political life. During these years, literature began to attract him more and more. In 1662 Memoirs came out without his knowledge in a falsified form, he protested this edition and released the original text in the same year. The second book of La Rochefoucauld, which brought him world fame- "Maxims and Moral Reflections", - was, like "Memoirs", first published in a distorted form against the will of the author in 1664. In 1665 La Rochefoucauld released the first author's edition, followed by four more during his lifetime. La Rochefoucauld corrected and supplemented the text from edition to edition. The last lifetime edition of 1678. contained 504 maxims. Numerous unpublished editions were added to them in posthumous editions, as well as those omitted from previous editions. Maxims has been translated into Russian more than once.
