5 ideas
Acts that look like generosity, courage, friendship or modesty are usually amour-propre wearing a costume: we give to be seen giving, we are brave to protect a reputation, and we refuse praise in order to be praised twice. The book's governing epigraph states it directly: our virtues are most often only vices disguised.
Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue. Faking a virtue spends real effort, which proves that the standard carries social value even among people who do not meet it. Widespread pretense is therefore evidence that a norm is working as currency, not that it has collapsed.
Reason usually does not decide. It supplies justifications for what desire and interest have already chosen, so the mind is always the dupe of the heart. Self-love works best when it is invisible to its owner, which means sincere self-examination is itself vulnerable to the flattery it is trying to detect.
We all have strength enough to bear the misfortunes of others. In the adversity of even our best friends we find something that does not displease us, because their loss improves our relative standing. Friendship is largely a reciprocal exchange of services and esteem, and gratitude is mostly a secret wish to receive greater benefits.
La Rochefoucauld spent years in aristocratic intrigue against Richelieu and Mazarin. He joined the losing noble side of the Fronde, and in 1652 at the battle of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine a musket shot to the face left him temporarily blinded. He retired from politics to the Paris salon of Madame de Sablé, where maxims were composed, traded and polished as a group game. From that practice came the 1665 Maximes, written by a man who had watched loyalty, honor and courage bend to self-interest at close range, himself included.