Francois, duc de La Rochefoucauld owes his place in French literature to his 504 moral maxims and reflective epigrams. Born in 1613, he was a child of the late Renaissance, and though his philosophy seems to derive from a belief that selfishness is the source of all human behaviour, its witty precepts and dispassionate manner had a marked influence on le Philosophes of the 18th century Enlightenment.