He attended the salon of the marquise de Sablé and entered the service of the duchesse de Longueville then of the duc de La Rochefoucauld.
François Mitterrand | François Truffaut | Claude François | François Villon | François Rabelais | François Hollande | Jean-François Lyotard | Jean-François Millet | François-René de Chateaubriand | La Rochefoucauld | François Boucher | François Fénelon | François Tombalbaye | François de La Rochefoucauld (writer) | Charles François Dumouriez | François Mauriac | Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse | Jean-François Champollion | François Viète | François Ozon | François Bozizé | Louis-François Richer Laflèche | Joseph François Dupleix | Jean-François Marmontel | François-René de La Tour du Pin, Chambly de La Charce | François Denhaut | François-André Danican Philidor | Michel François | Marie François Sadi Carnot | Louis-François Roubiliac |
Other important early aphorists were Baltasar Gracián, François de La Rochefoucauld and Blaise Pascal.
Until the Age of Enlightenment encompassing the 17th and 18th centuries, works of memoir were written by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury; François de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac of France; and Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, who wrote Memoirs at his family's home at the castle of La Ferté-Vidame.