"We are sometimes as different from ourselves as we are from others"
About this Quote
Identity is supposed to be our home base, the one address that doesn’t change. La Rochefoucauld quietly torches that fantasy. “We are sometimes as different from ourselves as we are from others” lands like a memo from someone who has watched human nature up close and come away unimpressed with its consistency.
The line’s trick is its symmetry: self/other, difference/difference. It reads calm, almost mathematical, which makes the accusation sharper. He’s not describing a dramatic transformation; he’s pointing to a routine fracture. The “sometimes” matters: not a metaphysical crisis, just the everyday fact that our motives mutate depending on circumstance, vanity, fear, desire to be seen well. The self isn’t a single voice but a rotating cast, each member convinced they’re the lead.
The subtext is classic La Rochefoucauld: moral self-knowledge is harder than moral judgment because we’re invested in our own flattering explanations. We’re quick to call strangers inconsistent, hypocritical, “not who they say they are.” He suggests the real scandal is how often we fail our own continuity test - how foreign yesterday’s convictions feel when today’s incentives change.
Context helps: a 17th-century court culture built on performance, reputation, and coded ambition. In that world, “character” is as much strategy as essence. His maxim isn’t therapy-speak; it’s social realism with a dry edge. You don’t need to travel to meet an alien mind. Wait until you’re tired, praised, threatened, in love, bored, or trying to win. Then watch how quickly you become someone else.
The line’s trick is its symmetry: self/other, difference/difference. It reads calm, almost mathematical, which makes the accusation sharper. He’s not describing a dramatic transformation; he’s pointing to a routine fracture. The “sometimes” matters: not a metaphysical crisis, just the everyday fact that our motives mutate depending on circumstance, vanity, fear, desire to be seen well. The self isn’t a single voice but a rotating cast, each member convinced they’re the lead.
The subtext is classic La Rochefoucauld: moral self-knowledge is harder than moral judgment because we’re invested in our own flattering explanations. We’re quick to call strangers inconsistent, hypocritical, “not who they say they are.” He suggests the real scandal is how often we fail our own continuity test - how foreign yesterday’s convictions feel when today’s incentives change.
Context helps: a 17th-century court culture built on performance, reputation, and coded ambition. In that world, “character” is as much strategy as essence. His maxim isn’t therapy-speak; it’s social realism with a dry edge. You don’t need to travel to meet an alien mind. Wait until you’re tired, praised, threatened, in love, bored, or trying to win. Then watch how quickly you become someone else.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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