Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims - LightNovelsOnl.com
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316.--Weak persons cannot be sincere.
317.--'Tis a small misfortune to oblige an ungrateful man; but it is unbearable to be obliged by a scoundrel.
318.--We may find means to cure a fool of his folly, but there are none to set straight a cross-grained spirit.
319.--If we take the liberty to dwell on their faults we cannot long preserve the feelings we should hold towards our friends and benefactors.
320.--To praise princes for virtues they do not possess is but to reproach them with impunity.
["Praise undeserved is satire in disguise," quoted by Pope from a poem which has not survived, "The Garland," by Mr. Broadhurst. "In some cases exaggerated or inappropriate praise becomes the most severe satire."-- Scott, Woodstock.]
321.--We are nearer loving those who hate us, than those who love us more than we desire.
322.--Those only are despicable who fear to be despised.
323.--Our wisdom is no less at the mercy of Fortune than our goods.
324.--There is more self-love than love in jealousy.
325.--We often comfort ourselves by the weakness of evils, for which reason has not the strength to console us.
326.--Ridicule dishonours more than dishonour itself.
["No," says a commentator, "Ridicule may do harm, but it cannot dishonour; it is vice which confers dishonour."]
327.--We own to small faults to persuade others that we have not great ones.
328.--Envy is more irreconcilable than hatred.
329.--We believe, sometimes, that we hate flattery --we only dislike the method.
["{But} when I tell him he hates flatter{ers}, He says he does, being then most flattered." Shakespeare, Julius Caesar {,Act II, Scene I, Decius}.]
330.--We pardon in the degree that we love.
331.--It is more difficult to be faithful to a mistress when one is happy, than when we are ill-treated by her.
[Si qua volet regnare diu contemnat amantem.--Ovid, Amores, ii. 19.]
332.--Women do not know all their powers of flirtation.
333.--Women cannot be completely severe unless they hate.
334.--Women can less easily resign flirtations than love.
335.--In love deceit almost always goes further than mistrust.
336.--There is a kind of love, the excess of which forbids jealousy.
337.--There are certain good qualities as there are senses, and those who want them can neither perceive nor understand them.
338.--When our hatred is too bitter it places us below those whom we hate.
339.--We only appreciate our good or evil in proportion to our self-love.
340.--The wit of most women rather strengthens their folly than their reason.
["Women have an entertaining tattle, and sometimes wit, but for solid reasoning and good sense I never knew one in my life that had it, and who reasoned and acted consequentially for four and twenty hours together."--Lord Chesterfield, Letter 129.]
341.--The heat of youth is not more opposed to safety than the coldness of age.
342.--The accent of our native country dwells in the heart and mind as well as on the tongue.
343.--To be a great man one should know how to profit by every phase of fortune.
344.--Most men, like plants, possess hidden qualities which chance discovers.
345.--Opportunity makes us known to others, but more to ourselves.
