Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims Part 6

117.--The most subtle of our acts is to simulate blindness for snares that we know are set for us. We are never so easily deceived as when trying to deceive.

118.--The intention of never deceiving often exposes us to deception.

119.--We become so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that at last we are disguised to ourselves.

["Those who quit their proper character{,} to a.s.sume what does not belong to them, are{,} for the greater part{,} ignorant both of the character they leave{,} and of the character they a.s.sume."--Burke, {Reflections On The Revolution In France, (1790), Paragraph 19}.]

{The translators' incorrectly cite Thoughts On The Cause Of The Present Discontents.}

120.--We often act treacherously more from weakness than from a fixed motive.

121.--We frequently do good to enable us with impunity to do evil.

122.--If we conquer our pa.s.sions it is more from their weakness than from our strength.

123.--If we never flattered ourselves we should have but scant pleasure.

124.--The most deceitful persons spend their lives in blaming deceit, so as to use it on some great occasion to promote some great interest.

125.--The daily employment of cunning marks a little mind, it generally happens that those who resort to it in one respect to protect themselves lay themselves open to attack in another.

["With that low cunning which in fools supplies, And amply, too, the place of being wise." Churchill, Rosciad, 117.]

126.--Cunning and treachery are the offspring of incapacity.

127.--The true way to be deceived is to think oneself more knowing than others.

128.--Too great cleverness is but deceptive delicacy, true delicacy is the most substantial cleverness.

129.--It is sometimes necessary to play the fool to avoid being deceived by cunning men.

130.--Weakness is the only fault which cannot be cured.

131.--The smallest fault of women who give themselves up to love is to love. [------"Faciunt graviora coactae Imperio s.e.xus minimumque libidine peccant." Juvenal, Sat. vi., 134.]

132.--It is far easier to be wise for others than to be so for oneself.

[Hence the proverb, "A man who is his own lawyer has a fool for his client."]

133.--The only good examples are those, that make us see the absurdity of bad originals.

134.--We are never so ridiculous from the habits we have as from those that we affect to have.

135.--We sometimes differ more widely from ourselves than we do from others.

136.--There are some who never would have loved if they never had heard it spoken of.

137.--When not prompted by vanity we say little.

138.--A man would rather say evil of himself than say nothing.

["Montaigne's vanity led him to talk perpetually of himself, and as often happens to vain men, he would rather talk of his own failings than of any foreign subject."-- Hallam, Literature Of Europe.]

139.--One of the reasons that we find so few persons rational and agreeable in conversation is there is hardly a person who does not think more of what he wants to say than of his answer to what is said. The most clever and polite are content with only seeming attentive while we perceive in their mind and eyes that at the very time they are wandering from what is said and desire to return to what they want to say. Instead of considering that the worst way to persuade or please others is to try thus strongly to please ourselves, and that to listen well and to answer well are some of the greatest charms we can have in conversation.

["An absent man can make but few observations, he can pursue nothing steadily because his absences make him lose his way. They are very disagreeable and hardly to be tolerated in old age, but in youth they cannot be forgiven." --Lord Chesterfield, Letter 195.]

140.--If it was not for the company of fools, a witty man would often be greatly at a loss.

141.--We often boast that we are never bored, but yet we are so conceited that we do not perceive how often we bore others.

142.--As it is the mark of great minds to say many things in a few words, so it is that of little minds to use many words to say nothing.

["So much they talked, so very little said." Churchill, Rosciad, 550.

"Men who are unequal to the labour of discussing an argument or wish to avoid it, are willing enough to suppose that much has been proved because much has been said."-- Junius, Jan. 1769.]

143.--It is oftener by the estimation of our own feelings that we exaggerate the good qualities of others than by their merit, and when we praise them we wish to attract their praise.

144.--We do not like to praise, and we never praise without a motive. Praise is flattery, artful, hidden, delicate, which gratifies differently him who praises and him who is praised. The one takes it as the reward of merit, the other bestows it to show his impartiality and knowledge.