"Only the contemptible fear contempt"
About this Quote
Only the contemptible fear contempt condenses Francois de La Rochefoucauld's hard-edged psychology of honor and self-love. The sting lies in the reversal: fear of others scorn is not a sign of delicacy or refined conscience, but evidence of a shaky character overly invested in appearances. Those confident in their own worth can endure disdain, preferring integrity to applause; those hollow within must borrow value from reputation, so contempt terrifies them.
La Rochefoucauld wrote among the intrigues of the 17th-century French court, where favor and reputation were coin. His Maxims dissect the ways amour-propre, self-love, bends virtue into performance. Under that lens, terror of contempt reveals an addiction to esteem. It is not the pain of injustice that hurts, but the loss of the mirror that flatters. Such dependence invites flattery, opportunism, and cowardice, the very traits that deserve contempt.
The sentence carries a Stoic undertone. Fear is a self-inflicted bondage; to fear another's disdain is to hand them the power to govern your choices. Freedom begins with indifference to praise and blame when they conflict with truth. This does not license arrogance or social obtuseness. One may value counsel and care about the good opinion of the wise without being enslaved to the crowd. La Rochefoucauld draws the line at servility: if fear of scorn rules you, you have already descended to what you dread being called.
Read against modern anxieties, the maxim feels prophetic. In a culture of metrics, likes, and public shaming, fear of contempt can distort judgment and tempt people toward performative virtue. The remedy is not thick skin alone, but inner coherence: cultivate standards that do not rise and fall with every gust of opinion. Contempt will come; the question is whether it reveals an emptiness within or falls harmlessly against a settled character.
La Rochefoucauld wrote among the intrigues of the 17th-century French court, where favor and reputation were coin. His Maxims dissect the ways amour-propre, self-love, bends virtue into performance. Under that lens, terror of contempt reveals an addiction to esteem. It is not the pain of injustice that hurts, but the loss of the mirror that flatters. Such dependence invites flattery, opportunism, and cowardice, the very traits that deserve contempt.
The sentence carries a Stoic undertone. Fear is a self-inflicted bondage; to fear another's disdain is to hand them the power to govern your choices. Freedom begins with indifference to praise and blame when they conflict with truth. This does not license arrogance or social obtuseness. One may value counsel and care about the good opinion of the wise without being enslaved to the crowd. La Rochefoucauld draws the line at servility: if fear of scorn rules you, you have already descended to what you dread being called.
Read against modern anxieties, the maxim feels prophetic. In a culture of metrics, likes, and public shaming, fear of contempt can distort judgment and tempt people toward performative virtue. The remedy is not thick skin alone, but inner coherence: cultivate standards that do not rise and fall with every gust of opinion. Contempt will come; the question is whether it reveals an emptiness within or falls harmlessly against a settled character.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
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