"All the passions make us commit faults; love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones"
About this Quote
La Rochefoucauld pits passion against reason and then singles out love as the passion that most spectacularly undoes our dignity. Anger may make us unjust, ambition may make us cruel, but love goads us into gestures that, under the cold gaze of others, look absurd. The emphasis falls on the word ridiculous: not the gravest transgressions, but the ones that expose us to laughter. In the culture of the French court and salons, where reputation was currency and wit a weapon, ridicule was a serious penalty. To be ridiculous was to lose standing, influence, and the mask of self-command that courtly life demanded.
The line carries his signature skepticism about human motives. Beneath the ideal of romantic devotion lies amour-propre, self-love seeking confirmation and triumph. Love flatters the self, then leads it into poses, exaggerations, and deceptions that reveal vanity rather than virtue. Grand declarations, jealous spyings, theatrical sacrifices, awkward attempts to appear irresistible or magnanimous — such behaviors betray how love entangles desire with the need to be seen and approved. What appears noble in private becomes comical in public because it performs more than it feels.
There is also a stylistic sting. The aphorism sets up an expected hierarchy of moral danger only to overturn it with a social one. By calling love’s faults ridiculous, he turns moral analysis into a comedy of manners, aligning himself with the age of Moliere, where folly is unmasked through laughter. The hyperbole is not merely cynical; it clarifies how love, unlike other passions, directly targets our sense of poise and prudence. It makes us forget the choreography of self-presentation on which civility depends.
Yet the observation cuts both ways. These ridiculous faults expose a shared vulnerability. They remind us that the self we curate for others is fragile, and that love’s power is measured not only in ecstasies and wounds, but in the foolish courage with which it makes us drop our guard.
The line carries his signature skepticism about human motives. Beneath the ideal of romantic devotion lies amour-propre, self-love seeking confirmation and triumph. Love flatters the self, then leads it into poses, exaggerations, and deceptions that reveal vanity rather than virtue. Grand declarations, jealous spyings, theatrical sacrifices, awkward attempts to appear irresistible or magnanimous — such behaviors betray how love entangles desire with the need to be seen and approved. What appears noble in private becomes comical in public because it performs more than it feels.
There is also a stylistic sting. The aphorism sets up an expected hierarchy of moral danger only to overturn it with a social one. By calling love’s faults ridiculous, he turns moral analysis into a comedy of manners, aligning himself with the age of Moliere, where folly is unmasked through laughter. The hyperbole is not merely cynical; it clarifies how love, unlike other passions, directly targets our sense of poise and prudence. It makes us forget the choreography of self-presentation on which civility depends.
Yet the observation cuts both ways. These ridiculous faults expose a shared vulnerability. They remind us that the self we curate for others is fragile, and that love’s power is measured not only in ecstasies and wounds, but in the foolish courage with which it makes us drop our guard.
Quote Details
| Topic | Love |
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