La #Rochefoucauld is one of my favorite thinkers, but I always wondered if he had lived through the French Revolution, would his writings acquire a political edge to them?
Yes, almost most certainly. His writings would've taken on a more political tone, just like Chamfort. The Ancien Regime was already crumbling by the end of the 18th century. The Revolution created an environment where selfishness & vanity were no longer mere moral flaws but also political issues that impacted society itself.

La Rochefoucauld would have turned his critical eye towards the corrupt systems of power & oppression the other revolutionaries railed against. His maxims might have shifted from dispassionate observation to more politically charged critiques. More than just noticing how amour-propre motivates human behavior, he might have dissected how this self-interest manifested in the corruption of political leaders or manipulative rhetoric used to maintain power.

Had La Rochefoucauld survived the Revolution's aftermath, he may have written about the inevitable hypocrisy of political revolutions & the gap between the lofty ideals of revolutionaries & their actions once in power. Instead of the aristocratic moralist, we get a sharp-tongued revolutionary skeptic. A few possible re-quotations:

Revolutions change rules, but rarely the ruled.

Liberty is the banner of all revolutions, but only a few truly wish to be free.

The passion for equality often hides a desire to rule.

The guillotine is the most honest form of justice; it makes no pretense to mercy.

Tyrants fall, but tyranny is immortal.

Revolutionaries are quick to denounce corruption, but slower to abandon it when it serves them.

A new order is often built on the ruins of virtue.

Men dream of utopias, but only because they refuse to see the nightmares they create.