Dictionary.net

Prince de Marcillac. A great French classic; born at Paris, Sept. 15, 1613; died there, March 17, 1680. His celebrity is due to his small volume of "Reflections, or Moral Sentences and Maxims", commonly known as the "Maxims" (first ed. 1665; final edition of the author 1678, comprising 504 maxims). The dominant note of the "Maxims" is egoism: virtue and vice are in themselves indifferent. This philosophy of life is set forth with consummate wit, and in a style of faultless elegance. His "Memoirs" (1662) possess literary merit in a degree hardly inferior to the "Maxims"; and in historical interest they are equal to the most celebrated memoirs of the time.