"In all professions each affects a look and an exterior to appear what he wishes the world to believe that he is. Thus we may say that the whole world is made up of appearances"
About this Quote
Everyone is in costume; the only real question is how convincing the tailoring is. La Rochefoucauld writes from inside a court culture where survival depended on performance: rank was fluid, favor was everything, and a misplaced gesture could cost you patronage. In that world, sincerity isn’t a virtue so much as a liability. “All professions” widens the frame beyond nobles and courtiers, turning social theater into a universal job requirement. The line is less a lament than a cool inventory of how power actually moves.
His verb choice matters: each “affects” a look. Not wears, not adopts - affects, with its double edge of deliberate display and emotional falsification. The “exterior” becomes a strategic surface, a résumé written on the body. What you “wish the world to believe” is not merely your image but your leverage: credibility, competence, piety, toughness, refinement. Identity becomes an argument you present, not an essence you possess.
The sharpest subtext is his refusal to exempt anyone, including himself. There’s no righteous outsider here, no pure interior self waiting to be discovered. The punchline - “the whole world is made up of appearances” - is cynical, but not simple. It suggests that society isn’t occasionally deceived; it’s constructed out of mutually agreed-upon performances, a marketplace where reputation is currency and authenticity is mostly a story people tell to feel less complicit. Read now, it lands like an early, unsentimental draft of personal branding: the 17th-century court prefiguring the LinkedIn feed.
His verb choice matters: each “affects” a look. Not wears, not adopts - affects, with its double edge of deliberate display and emotional falsification. The “exterior” becomes a strategic surface, a résumé written on the body. What you “wish the world to believe” is not merely your image but your leverage: credibility, competence, piety, toughness, refinement. Identity becomes an argument you present, not an essence you possess.
The sharpest subtext is his refusal to exempt anyone, including himself. There’s no righteous outsider here, no pure interior self waiting to be discovered. The punchline - “the whole world is made up of appearances” - is cynical, but not simple. It suggests that society isn’t occasionally deceived; it’s constructed out of mutually agreed-upon performances, a marketplace where reputation is currency and authenticity is mostly a story people tell to feel less complicit. Read now, it lands like an early, unsentimental draft of personal branding: the 17th-century court prefiguring the LinkedIn feed.
Quote Details
| Topic | Truth |
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