Ben Wilson

Rochefoucauld had sacrificed all to her, even the favor of Cardinal Richelieu. But when she became regent, she bestowed her favors upon those she hated. Her friends were forgotten. And look, you can understand why he would feel that way. And there is a lot of that cynicism that you can just tell he has a bad taste in his mouth from these experiences.

Rochefoucauld had sacrificed all to her, even the favor of Cardinal Richelieu. But when she became regent, she bestowed her favors upon those she hated. Her friends were forgotten. And look, you can understand why he would feel that way. And there is a lot of that cynicism that you can just tell he has a bad taste in his mouth from these experiences.

It does honestly get tiresome, like maxim after maxim. You can't trust people. They're actually just serving their self-interest. They don't care about the virtues that they claim to espouse. They don't care about you. They only care about themselves. However, the maxims are worth working through because I think out of it emerges some really interesting thoughts.

It does honestly get tiresome, like maxim after maxim. You can't trust people. They're actually just serving their self-interest. They don't care about the virtues that they claim to espouse. They don't care about you. They only care about themselves. However, the maxims are worth working through because I think out of it emerges some really interesting thoughts.

So much of like what we consider high-minded virtue and idealism is dragged through the mud, but interesting things come out on the other side. So what people call friendship is mostly just the expectation of some future benefit, right? What people call love is mostly just a match of convenience to advance their station. What people call virtue is mostly just self-flattery driven by weakness.

So much of like what we consider high-minded virtue and idealism is dragged through the mud, but interesting things come out on the other side. So what people call friendship is mostly just the expectation of some future benefit, right? What people call love is mostly just a match of convenience to advance their station. What people call virtue is mostly just self-flattery driven by weakness.

However, like by removing the veneer of fake friendship, fake love, fake virtue, what you get at is the real, true, beautiful, pure thing. So for example, he writes of friends, of friendship, most friends sicken us of friendship, most devotees of devotion. Okay. That's incredibly harsh. Most friends sicken us of friendship.

However, like by removing the veneer of fake friendship, fake love, fake virtue, what you get at is the real, true, beautiful, pure thing. So for example, he writes of friends, of friendship, most friends sicken us of friendship, most devotees of devotion. Okay. That's incredibly harsh. Most friends sicken us of friendship.

In other words, like most friends make us sour on the entire idea of friendship. It's an incredibly cynical thing to say about friendship. And yet he also says a true friend is the greatest of all goods and that of which we think least of acquiring. So by kind of dissing on friendship, he's not saying that friendship is actually bad. The entire concept is fake and not worth it. No, no, no.

In other words, like most friends make us sour on the entire idea of friendship. It's an incredibly cynical thing to say about friendship. And yet he also says a true friend is the greatest of all goods and that of which we think least of acquiring. So by kind of dissing on friendship, he's not saying that friendship is actually bad. The entire concept is fake and not worth it. No, no, no.

What he's saying is, yes, most friendship is fake. And it's incredibly rare to find real friendship. But when you do, it's the most valuable thing of all. And so it's worth fighting through all that falsity and fakeness and pretense in order to get to the real thing. Because the real thing is so valuable and so beautiful and so worth acquiring. He also writes very similarly of the idea of love.

What he's saying is, yes, most friendship is fake. And it's incredibly rare to find real friendship. But when you do, it's the most valuable thing of all. And so it's worth fighting through all that falsity and fakeness and pretense in order to get to the real thing. Because the real thing is so valuable and so beautiful and so worth acquiring. He also writes very similarly of the idea of love.

So he writes of love. There are some who never would have loved if they had not heard it spoken of. I love that. In other words, many people are just memed into love. It's something you do because you're supposed to do it. But all these people, they never feel that natural, true, burning passion, that overwhelming desire that intoxicates you.

So he writes of love. There are some who never would have loved if they had not heard it spoken of. I love that. In other words, many people are just memed into love. It's something you do because you're supposed to do it. But all these people, they never feel that natural, true, burning passion, that overwhelming desire that intoxicates you.

But he's trying to dig through that self-deception and self-interest and that pretense in order to find real true love. Okay, so he writes of love, if there is a pure love exempt from the mixture of our other passions, it is that which is concealed at the bottom of the heart and of which even ourselves, we are ignorant. So again, it's similar to friendship. Both are mostly fake.

But he's trying to dig through that self-deception and self-interest and that pretense in order to find real true love. Okay, so he writes of love, if there is a pure love exempt from the mixture of our other passions, it is that which is concealed at the bottom of the heart and of which even ourselves, we are ignorant. So again, it's similar to friendship. Both are mostly fake.

But when you find the real thing, it's worth trying to get to at the bottom of all these other passions because it's incredibly beautiful and worthwhile. So I think Rochefoucault is uniquely situated to see through these pretenses because of his background. This is a guy who was... Like an alpha Chad, for lack of a better term. An apex predator.

But when you find the real thing, it's worth trying to get to at the bottom of all these other passions because it's incredibly beautiful and worthwhile. So I think Rochefoucault is uniquely situated to see through these pretenses because of his background. This is a guy who was... Like an alpha Chad, for lack of a better term. An apex predator.

He was fighting, playing, scheming, seducing, competing. And frankly, so many so-called philosophers and scholars are really just building elaborate justifications for their own existence. Justifications for why they are actually better and more virtuous than those who are richer, stronger, better looking, and more fortunate than they themselves are.

He was fighting, playing, scheming, seducing, competing. And frankly, so many so-called philosophers and scholars are really just building elaborate justifications for their own existence. Justifications for why they are actually better and more virtuous than those who are richer, stronger, better looking, and more fortunate than they themselves are.