Maxim 635

"Most women yield through weakness rather than passion, and that is why as a rule enterprising men are more successful than others although no more attractive."

This maxim was perhaps as much a sign of the times than anything. Aristocratic women at the time – the kind of women La Rouchefoucauld was most familiar with – were known to play sexual games where they ended up yielding to a man through the appearance of weakness rather than an expression of passion. Perhaps La Rouchefoucauld was unaware that it was all just a game? It seems doubtful that he would be so ignorant of his own society, as penetrating as most of his maxims are. Or perhaps, this is precisely his letting the men in on how to most successfully play the game – don’t count on your looks, but on being clever, as being clever, at the time, was precisely what women were looking for. Perhaps the women at the time took into consideration the fact that someone who is clever and creative in public might be able to make use of that intelligence and creativity in the bedroom. In that, the women of the 17th century were much more clever than women are today.