The expression “No man is a hero to his valet de chambre” appeared in France in the 17th century and does not have a specific author. The references to authorship of J. de La Bruyere, found in English and Russian reference books, are erroneous. Later this maxim was often addressed to the biographers of great people.
Keywords
origin of familiar phrases; biographers; Antigonus I; M. Montaigne; J.-J. Rousseau; Mme Aissé; A.-M. de Cornuel; J. de La Bruyère; Hegel; Goethe; D. Boswell; O. Wilde.