I know of
nothing in the world so beautiful as nobility of heart and loftiness
of mind: from these proceeds that perfect integrity which I set above
all other qualities, and which seems to me, at my present stage of
life, to be of more price than a royal crown. But I am not sure
whether, in order to live happily and as a man of the highest sense of
honour, it is not better to be Alcibiades and Phaedo than to be
Aristides and Socrates.
It would take us too far out of our path to comment on the relation of
this epicureanism to the religion of La Rochefoucauld's day, but a few
words seem necessary on this subject. He says extremely little about
religion, although he makes the necessary and perhaps not wholly
perfunctory, statement that he was orthodox. But the position of a
votary of St. Epicurus had grown difficult. Since the Duke's exile,
the enmity between the church and the world had become violent, so
violent that a man of prominent social and intellectual position was
bound to take one side or another. We may note that the years during
which the "Maximes" were being composed were precisely those during
which Bossuet was thundering from the pulpit his anathemas against
worldly luxury and the pride of life.
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