Daily Inspiration Quote by Jean de La Bruyère

Power, La Bruyere implies, doesn’t just corrupt; it outsources. The line is a neat little dismantling of the flattering myth that “great men” rule by pure virtue. Even at their most benevolent, they still bump into the grubby logistics of authority: someone has to lean on rivals, spread rumors, bury evidence, cut corners, make threats. The joke is blackly practical. “Best intentioned” is a setup, “need” is the punch, and “a few scoundrels” is the courtly euphemism for a shadow cabinet of fixers.

What makes it work is its cynical precision about moral delegation. Leaders don’t necessarily become villains; they hire them. The honest man’s conscience becomes an operational bottleneck, so the system routes around it. La Bruyere’s phrasing turns ethics into a matter of workflow: there are tasks that can’t be done without staining the doer, so the stain gets assigned to someone already dirty. That’s not a loophole in morality; it’s how institutions preserve the leader’s image while still delivering results.

Context matters: La Bruyere wrote under Louis XIV’s absolutist court culture, where reputation was currency and proximity to power demanded performance. The maxim reads like a field note from Versailles: the king’s public virtue is maintained by private vice, carefully compartmentalized. It’s not merely anti-hero; it’s anti-innocence. If you want grandeur, he warns, you’re also buying the scoundrels who make it possible.