Wit & Attitude Quote by Jean de La Bruyère

La Bruyere is ruthless about the way status works as a cosmetic, not a proof. Favor and riches don’t merely abandon a man; they stop performing their real job: laundering his incompetence. That verb, “concealed,” is the tell. Wealth and patronage aren’t rewards for merit so much as stage lighting that flatters whatever stands in it. When the lights go out, the flaws were never newly created; they’re simply no longer edited out by deference.

The sting lands on “discover.” The public doesn’t learn, it notices. La Bruyere sketches a social world where perception is outsourced: people take their cues from proximity to power. If a man is favored, observers assume he’s wise; if he’s rich, they assume he’s capable. The crowd’s judgment is revealed as lazy, even complicit, because “no one perceived before” isn’t about a lack of evidence. It’s about a lack of permission to see.

Context sharpens the cynicism. Writing under Louis XIV’s court culture, La Bruyere watched reputations built on access, not accomplishment. “Favor” is a technical term in that ecosystem: the king’s attention, a patron’s nod, the soft currency that turns mediocrity into authority. The line reads like a moralist’s aside, but it’s really a social diagnostic: institutions of prestige don’t just elevate people, they distort the audience. When someone falls, we call it revelation. La Bruyere calls it what it is: the end of a cover story.