"Though nature be ever so generous, yet can she not make a hero alone. Fortune must contribute her part too; and till both concur, the work cannot be perfected"
About this Quote
Merit is not self-sufficient; that is La Rochefoucauld's cold little blade, slid neatly between the ribs of heroic mythology. In a culture that loved epic gestures and courtly reputations, he insists that "nature" (talent, courage, temperament) cannot mint a hero without "fortune" (timing, patronage, accident, political weather). The line sounds almost fair-minded until you notice how it quietly humiliates the self-made man: even the most "generous" nature hits a ceiling.
What makes it work is the balance of flattery and sabotage. "Nature" is praised as abundant, "ever so generous", then immediately shown to be insufficient. The hero becomes less a moral achievement than a joint venture between character and circumstance. It's a sentence built like a trap: you enter expecting an ode to virtue, you exit thinking about the randomness of who gets credited.
The subtext is recognizably Rochefoucauldian: skepticism about public narratives and the vanity they feed. At Louis XIV's court, where status could hinge on a glance from power, "fortune" isn't mystical fate; it's proximity to influence, the unpredictable turning of favor, the right war at the right time. "Till both concur" suggests heroism is an event, not an essence, requiring a stage as much as an actor.
There's also a moral sting: if heroes depend on fortune, then society's praise is partly misallocated, and our envy is misplaced. The quote doesn't abolish excellence; it downgrades our confidence in recognizing it.
What makes it work is the balance of flattery and sabotage. "Nature" is praised as abundant, "ever so generous", then immediately shown to be insufficient. The hero becomes less a moral achievement than a joint venture between character and circumstance. It's a sentence built like a trap: you enter expecting an ode to virtue, you exit thinking about the randomness of who gets credited.
The subtext is recognizably Rochefoucauldian: skepticism about public narratives and the vanity they feed. At Louis XIV's court, where status could hinge on a glance from power, "fortune" isn't mystical fate; it's proximity to influence, the unpredictable turning of favor, the right war at the right time. "Till both concur" suggests heroism is an event, not an essence, requiring a stage as much as an actor.
There's also a moral sting: if heroes depend on fortune, then society's praise is partly misallocated, and our envy is misplaced. The quote doesn't abolish excellence; it downgrades our confidence in recognizing it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|---|
| Source | Maxims (Maximes), François de La Rochefoucauld , English translation of a maxim; cited on Wikiquote. |
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