Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims Part 13

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.