Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims Part 14

346.--If a woman's temper is beyond control there can be no control of the mind or heart.

347.--We hardly find any persons of good sense, save those who agree with us.

["That was excellently observed, say I, when I read an author when his opinion agrees with mine."--Swift, Thoughts On Various Subjects.]

348.--When one loves one doubts even what one most believes.

349.--The greatest miracle of love is to eradicate flirtation.

350.--Why we hate with so much bitterness those who deceive us is because they think themselves more clever than we are.

["I could pardon all his (Louis XI.'s) deceit, but I cannot forgive his supposing me capable of the gross folly of being duped by his professions."--Sir Walter Scott, Quentin Durward.]

351.--We have much trouble to break with one, when we no longer are in love.

352.--We almost always are bored with persons with whom we should not be bored.

353.--A gentleman may love like a lunatic, but not like a beast.

354.--There are certain defects which well mounted glitter like virtue itself.

355.--Sometimes we lose friends for whose loss our regret is greater than our grief, and others for whom our grief is greater than our regret.

356.--Usually we only praise heartily those who admire us.

357.--Little minds are too much wounded by little things; great minds see all and are not even hurt.

358.--Humility is the true proof of Christian virtues; without it we retain all our faults, and they are only covered by pride to hide them from others, and often from ourselves.

359.--Infidelities should extinguish love, and we ought not to be jealous when we have cause to be so. No persons escape causing jealousy who are worthy of exciting it.

360.--We are more humiliated by the least infidelity towards us, than by our greatest towards others.

361.--Jealousy is always born with love, but does not always die with it.

362.--Most women do not grieve so much for the death of their lovers for love's-sake, as to show they were worthy of being beloved.

363.--The evils we do to others give us less pain than those we do to ourselves.

364.--We well know that it is bad taste to talk of our wives; but we do not so well know that it is the same to speak of ourselves.

365.--There are virtues which degenerate into vices when they arise from Nature, and others which when acquired are never perfect. For example, reason must teach us to manage our estate and our confidence, while Nature should have given us goodness and valour.

366.--However we distrust the sincerity of those whom we talk with, we always believe them more sincere with us than with others.

367.--There are few virtuous women who are not tired of their part.

["Every woman is at heart a rake."--Pope. Moral Essays, ii.]

368.--The greater number of good women are like concealed treasures, safe as no one has searched for them.

369.--The violences we put upon ourselves to escape love are often more cruel than the cruelty of those we love.

370.--There are not many cowards who know the whole of their fear.

371.--It is generally the fault of the loved one not to perceive when love ceases.

372.--Most young people think they are natural when they are only boorish and rude.

373.--Some tears after having deceived others deceive ourselves.

374.--If we think we love a woman for love of herself we are greatly deceived.

375.--Ordinary men commonly condemn what is beyond them.

376.--Envy is destroyed by true friends.h.i.+p, flirtation by true love.