"Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another"
About this Quote
A French Enlightenment mind telling you to stop doomscrolling before doomscrolling existed is precisely why Condorcet still lands. "Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another" reads like a self-help platitude until you place it in his actual terrain: a philosopher of progress who believed society could be made rational, fair, and measurable, and who watched that same appetite for measurement curdle into suspicion, faction, and eventually the guillotine.
The specific intent is less "be grateful" than "refuse the scoreboard". Comparison is the cheap fuel of envy and the quiet engine of hierarchy; it trains you to experience your life as an underperforming version of someone else's. Condorcet is warning that this habit doesn't just poison individual happiness, it makes citizens malleable. A population trained to rank itself is easily governed by status symbols, resentment, and manufactured scarcity. Tell people they're behind and they'll accept humiliating bargains to catch up.
The subtext is also subtly anti-aristocratic. In a world of inherited rank, comparison isn't neutral; it's a rigged game masquerading as common sense. Condorcet, a champion of universal rights (including for women), is nudging readers toward an inner independence that complements political equality: if you can't stop measuring your worth against others, formal rights won't feel like freedom.
Context sharpens the edge. He lived through the Revolution and died in its chaos, a casualty of ideological purity tests. The line doubles as a survival strategy: keep your life from being annexed by other people's narratives, or by the era's relentless demand to prove you're on the "right" side.
The specific intent is less "be grateful" than "refuse the scoreboard". Comparison is the cheap fuel of envy and the quiet engine of hierarchy; it trains you to experience your life as an underperforming version of someone else's. Condorcet is warning that this habit doesn't just poison individual happiness, it makes citizens malleable. A population trained to rank itself is easily governed by status symbols, resentment, and manufactured scarcity. Tell people they're behind and they'll accept humiliating bargains to catch up.
The subtext is also subtly anti-aristocratic. In a world of inherited rank, comparison isn't neutral; it's a rigged game masquerading as common sense. Condorcet, a champion of universal rights (including for women), is nudging readers toward an inner independence that complements political equality: if you can't stop measuring your worth against others, formal rights won't feel like freedom.
Context sharpens the edge. He lived through the Revolution and died in its chaos, a casualty of ideological purity tests. The line doubles as a survival strategy: keep your life from being annexed by other people's narratives, or by the era's relentless demand to prove you're on the "right" side.
Quote Details
| Topic | Contentment |
|---|
More Quotes by Marquis
Add to List
