Tuesday 23 January 2007

Enemies of Virtue

“However mean men may be, they dare not appear as enemies of virtue; and when they want to persecute it, they feign to believe that it is false or they credit it with crimes.”

[“Quelque méchants que soient les hommes, ils n’oseraint paraître ennemis de la vertu, et lorsqu’ils la veulent persécuter, ils feignent de croire qu’elle est fausse ou ils lui supposent des crimes.”]

La Rochefoucauld, Maxims, tr. S.D. Warner & S. Douard (South Bend, Indiana: St Augustine’s Press, 2001), p.84 (§465).

6 comments:

dearieme said...

"Mean" for "mechant" may be OK for Yanks, but grates for me.

dearieme said...

malevolent?

Deogolwulf said...

Not my translation, dearieme. I am estranged from the French language, possibly due to some ancient prejudice.

dearieme said...

Yes, I noticed that it was a Yankee translation, whence the burden of my complaint.
At least they didn't allude to a dog that sucks.

Anonymous said...

"Patents are a virtue" - Milford Crabtree

James Higham said...

dearieme - méchant, pas mechant.

I take it as malicious, spiteful.