Before we set our hearts too much on anything, let us examine how happy are those who already possess it.

François VI de La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680), a French nobleman shaped by court politics, the Fronde civil wars, and the moral scrutiny of salon culture, distilled his observations into terse maxims about self-interest, desire, and illusion. This sentence is typically encountered in English as a translation of one of his moral reflections from the tradition of his *Maximes* (first published 1665 and repeatedly revised). The remark fits the book’s recurring stance: worldly ambitions and coveted possessions often promise more happiness than they deliver, and prudent judgment should test desire against the lived reality of those who have already attained the object.

The maxim advises a check on longing: before investing deep emotional hope in a goal—wealth, status, romance, power—look at the apparent contentment of people who already have it. If their possession has not made them notably happier, the object may be a mirage, or happiness may depend on factors other than acquisition. The line also implies that desire is fueled by imagination and comparison rather than by genuine need. In La Rochefoucauld’s moral psychology, this is a corrective to vanity and self-deception: we chase symbols of fulfillment, then discover that satisfaction is unstable, quickly normalizes, or brings new anxieties.