Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims Part 10

229.--The good we have received from a man should make us excuse the wrong he does us.

230.--Nothing is so infectious as example, and we never do great good or evil without producing the like. We imitate good actions by emulation, and bad ones by the evil of our nature, which shame imprisons until example liberates.

231.--It is great folly to wish only to be wise.

232.--Whatever pretext we give to our afflictions it is always interest or vanity that causes them.

233.--In afflictions there are various kinds of hypocrisy. In one, under the pretext of weeping for one dear to us we bemoan ourselves; we regret her good opinion of us, we deplore the loss of our comfort, our pleasure, our consideration. Thus the dead have the credit of tears shed for the living. I affirm 'tis a kind of hypocrisy which in these afflictions deceives itself. There is another kind not so innocent because it imposes on all the world, that is the grief of those who aspire to the glory of a n.o.ble and immortal sorrow. After Time, which absorbs all, has obliterated what sorrow they had, they still obstinately obtrude their tears, their sighs their groans, they wear a solemn face, and try to persuade others by all their acts, that their grief will end only with their life. This sad and distressing vanity is commonly found in ambitious women. As their s.e.x closes to them all paths to glory, they strive to render themselves celebrated by showing an inconsolable affliction. There is yet another kind of tears arising from but small sources, which flow easily and cease as easily. One weeps to achieve a reputation for tenderness, weeps to be pitied, weeps to be bewept, in fact one weeps to avoid the disgrace of not weeping!

["In grief the {Pleasure} is still uppermost{;} and the affliction we suffer has no resemblance to absolute pain which is always odious, and which we endeavour to shake off as soon as possible."--Burke, Sublime And Beautiful{, (1756), Part I, Sect. V}.]

234.--It is more often from pride than from ignorance that we are so obstinately opposed to current opinions; we find the first places taken, and we do not want to be the last.

235.--We are easily consoled at the misfortunes of our friends when they enable us to prove our tenderness for them.

236.--It would seem that even self-love may be the dupe of goodness and forget itself when we work for others. And yet it is but taking the shortest way to arrive at its aim, taking usury under the pretext of giving, in fact winning everybody in a subtle and delicate manner.

237.--No one should be praised for his goodness if he has not strength enough to be wicked. All other goodness is but too often an idleness or powerlessness of will.

238.--It is not so dangerous to do wrong to most men, as to do them too much good.

239.--Nothing flatters our pride so much as the confidence of the great, because we regard it as the result of our worth, without remembering that generally 'tis but vanity, or the inability to keep a secret.

240.--We may say of conformity as distinguished from beauty, that it is a symmetry which knows no rules, and a secret harmony of features both one with each other and with the colour and appearance of the person.

241.--Flirtation is at the bottom of woman's nature, although all do not practise it, some being restrained by fear, others by sense.

["By nature woman is a flirt, but her flirting changes both in the mode and object according to her opinions."-- Rousseau, Emile.]

242.--We often bore others when we think we cannot possibly bore them.

243.--Few things are impossible in themselves; application to make them succeed fails us more often than the means.

244.--Sovereign ability consists in knowing the value of things.

245.--There is great ability in knowing how to conceal one's ability.

["You have accomplished a great stroke in diplomacy when you have made others think that you have only very average abilities."--La Bruyere.]

246.--What seems generosity is often disguised ambition, that despises small to run after greater interest.

247.--The fidelity of most men is merely an invention of self-love to win confidence; a method to place us above others and to render us depositaries of the most important matters.

248.--Magnanimity despises all, to win all.

249.--There is no less eloquence in the voice, in the eyes and in the air of a speaker than in his choice of words.

250.--True eloquence consists in saying all that should be, not all that could be said.

251.--There are people whose faults become them, others whose very virtues disgrace them.

["There are faults which do him honour, and virtues that disgrace him."--Junius, Letter Of 28th May, 1770.]

252.--It is as common to change one's tastes, as it is uncommon to change one's inclinations.

253.--Interest sets at work all sorts of virtues and vices.

254.--Humility is often a feigned submission which we employ to supplant others. It is one of the devices of Pride to lower us to raise us; and truly pride transforms itself in a thousand ways, and is never so well disguised and more able to deceive than when it hides itself under the form of humility.

["Grave and plausible enough to be thought fit for business."--Junius, Letter To The Duke Of Grafton.

"He saw a cottage with a double coach-house, A cottage of gentility, And the devil was pleased, for his darling sin Is the pride that apes humility." Southey, Devil's Walk.]

{There are numerous corrections necessary for this quotation; I will keep the original above so you can compare the correct pa.s.sages:

"He pa.s.sed a cottage with a double coach-house, A cottage of gentility, And he owned with a grin, That his favourite sin Is pride that apes humility." --Southey, Devil's Walk, Stanza 8.

"And the devil did grin, for his darling sin Is pride that apes humility." --Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Devil's Thoughts}

255.--All feelings have their peculiar tone of voice, gestures and looks, and this harmony, as it is good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, makes people agreeable or disagreeable.