French moralists

The French Moralists (French, les moralistes) were those writers continuing a tradition in French literature, originating in Michel de Montaigne's Essays, concerned with the description of the moral character of humanity and with providing prescriptive rules, embodied as maxims, to guide living well.

Many famous French stylists were moralists and the French moralists are perhaps the largest coherent group of writers of aphorisms in the Western literary tradition.