Virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea.

[Les vertus se perdent dans l’intérêt, comme les fleuves se perdent dans la mer.]

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble

Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶171 (1665-1678) [tr. Whichello (2016)]
    (Source)

Present in the 1st (1665) edition, which began the maxim with "Toutes les vertus se perdent [All virtues are lost] ...."

(Source (French)). Other translations:

All the Virtues men so much pretend to, are swallow'd up in Interest, as Rivers lose their names when they fall into the Sea.
[tr. Davies (1669), ¶3]

Vertues are lost in Interest, as Rivers are swallowed up in the Sea.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶172]

The virtues are lost in interest, as rivers are in the sea.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶448; ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶165]

The virtues are lost in interest, as rivers are lost in the sea.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶174]

As rivers are lost in the sea so are virtues in self.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871), ¶171]

Virtues lose themselves in selfish motives like rivers in the sea.
[tr. Heard (1917), ¶171]

Our virtues lose themselves in selfishness as rivers are lost in the sea.
[tr. Stevens (1939), ¶171]

Our virtues are drowned in self-interest, as the rivers flow into the sea.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957), ¶171]

Virtues are swallowed up by self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959), ¶171]

The virtues lose themselves in self-interest like rivers in the sea.
[tr. Tancock (1959), ¶171]