the aphorists

In La Rochefoucauld’s aphorisms there is the feeling of drawing rooms, the air heavy with the dust of powdered wigs and pungent perfumes.

He's fond of negative phrasings which is perhaps a reflection of his cynical nature. Cynicism is one thing, but he’s often wrong, too, about human nature, or he overstates his case, which is perhaps inherent to the aphorism as a literary form.

open and closed

A cage, too, as they say of a tree, is mostly air.