We rarely find that people have good sense unless they agree with us.

This aphorism is attributed to François de La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680), the French moralist whose Maximes distilled observations about self-interest, vanity, and social behavior in the courtly world of seventeenth-century France. Written in an era of salon culture and political intrigue around the Fronde and the court of Louis XIV, his maxims often expose how “reason” and “virtue” are bent by amour-propre (self-love). The line reflects the social psychology of elite conversation: judgments about others’ intelligence or “good sense” are frequently less objective assessments than reflections of our own need to feel confirmed and superior.

La Rochefoucauld wryly suggests that our evaluations of other people’s “good sense” are biased by agreement: we tend to call someone sensible when they echo our views and foolish when they contradict us. The maxim is less a claim about logic than about ego—how self-love disguises itself as impartial judgment. Its sting lies in revealing a common human shortcut: substituting consensus with ourselves for evidence of wisdom. As a moral observation, it encourages intellectual humility and skepticism about our own “objective” assessments, reminding readers that disagreement does not automatically signal irrationality, and agreement does not guarantee truth.

“We seldom find any people of good sense, save those who agree with us.”