"Some people displease with merit, and others' very faults and defects are pleasing"
About this Quote
Merit can repel while faults attract because we rarely judge in a moral vacuum; we judge in a social world charged with envy, vanity, and charm. Excellence can sting. Another person’s competence or integrity exposes our inadequacies, disrupts hierarchies, and feels like a silent reproach. Even admirable qualities can grate when performed without tact, humility, or ease. A virtuous person who is severe, ostentatious, or didactic often provokes resentment. By contrast, flaws can feel disarming, even delightful, when they arrive wrapped in grace, wit, beauty, or vulnerability. We pardon the charming rake and warm to the candid bumbler. The deficit becomes a feature because it flatters our self-love: we feel generous, amused, or comforted by their humanity.
La Rochefoucauld learned this at the French court, where appearances governed success as much as substance. His maxims sift the motives beneath polished manners, and they repeatedly return to amour-propre, self-love, as the lens that bends our judgment. The culture of the honnête homme prized ease, lightness, and a certain je ne sais quoi; virtues without social grace risked seeming boorish, while even vices could be sweetened by style. He implies that moral worth is often subordinated to the arts of pleasing, and that our affections are organized less by truth than by the service they render to pride.
Modern life echoes the pattern. We punish the conspicuously competent, especially when they look like a rebuke; we forgive the charismatic offender who entertains us or offers a confession that feels intimate. The halo effect, beauty privilege, and the likeability penalty for high achievers testify that perception is elastic. The maxim urges two disciplines: attach tact and humility to merit so it need not bruise others, and resist the seduction of charm that turns defects into delights. Only then can judgment approach fairness, even in a world that rewards what pleases more than what deserves.
La Rochefoucauld learned this at the French court, where appearances governed success as much as substance. His maxims sift the motives beneath polished manners, and they repeatedly return to amour-propre, self-love, as the lens that bends our judgment. The culture of the honnête homme prized ease, lightness, and a certain je ne sais quoi; virtues without social grace risked seeming boorish, while even vices could be sweetened by style. He implies that moral worth is often subordinated to the arts of pleasing, and that our affections are organized less by truth than by the service they render to pride.
Modern life echoes the pattern. We punish the conspicuously competent, especially when they look like a rebuke; we forgive the charismatic offender who entertains us or offers a confession that feels intimate. The halo effect, beauty privilege, and the likeability penalty for high achievers testify that perception is elastic. The maxim urges two disciplines: attach tact and humility to merit so it need not bruise others, and resist the seduction of charm that turns defects into delights. Only then can judgment approach fairness, even in a world that rewards what pleases more than what deserves.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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