“In all professions we affect a part and an appearance to seem what we wish to be. Thus the world is merely composed of actors.”

—  François de La Rochefoucauld , book Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims

Dans toutes les professions chacun affecte une mine et un extérieur pour paraître ce qu'il veut qu'on le croie. Ainsi on peut dire que le monde n'est composé que de mines.
Variant translation: In all professions, each affects a part and an appearance to make him seem as he would wish to be believed. And so it is that one can say that the world is made only of appearances.
Maxim 256.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)

Original

Dans toutes les professions chacun affecte une mine et un extérieur pour paraître ce qu'il veut qu'on le croie. Ainsi on peut dire que le monde n'est composé que de mines.

Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)

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François de La Rochefoucauld photo
François de La Rochefoucauld 156
French author of maxims and memoirs 1613–1680

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