And indeed we see this everywhere before our eyes, in small things as in great. Now we see its terrible side in the lives of great tyrants and miscreants, and in world-desolating wars; now its absurd side, in which it is the theme of comedy, and very specially appears as self-conceit and vanity. Rochefoucault understood this better than any one else, and presented it in the abstract.
Nonahi ikusten dugu hori begien aurrean, nola txikian hala handian, bai tirano eta gaizkile handien bizitzan ikusten dugu alderdi ikaragarritik eta mundua sakailatzen duten gudu horietan, bai alde barregarritik, non ere komediaren gaia baita eta oso bereziki presuntzioan eta banitatean agertzen baita, zeina Larochefoucaultek beste inork ez bezala kontzebitu eta in abstracto aurkeztu baitu: