Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
179.--We sometimes complain of the levity of our friends to justify our
own by anticipation.
180.--Our repentance is not so much sorrow for the ill we have done as
fear of the ill that may happen to us.
181.--One sort of inconstancy springs from levity or weakness of mind,
and makes us accept everyone's opinion, and another more excusable comes
from a surfeit of matter.
182.--Vices enter into the composition of virtues as poison into that of
medicines. Prudence collects and blends the two and renders them useful
against the ills of life.
183.--For the credit of virtue we must admit that the greatest
misfortunes of men are those into which they fall through their crimes.
184.--We admit our faults to repair by our sincerity the evil we have
done in the opinion of others.
[In the edition of 1665 this maxim stands as No. 200. We never admit our
faults except through vanity.]
185.--There are both heroes of evil and heroes of good.
[Ut alios industria ita hunc ignavia protulerat ad famam, habebaturque
non ganeo et profligator sed erudito luxu. --Tacit. Ann. xvi.]
186.--We do not despise all who have vices, but we do despise all who
have not virtues.
["If individuals have no virtues their vices may be of use to
us."--Junius, 5th Oct. 1771.]
187.--The name of virtue is as useful to our interest as that of vice.
188.--The health of the mind is not less uncertain than that of the
body, and when passions seem furthest removed we are no less in danger
of infection than of falling ill when we are well.
189.--It seems that nature has at man's birth fixed the bounds of his
virtues and vices.
190.--Great men should not have great faults.
191.--We may say vices wait on us in the course of our life as the
landlords with whom we successively lodge, and if we travelled the road
twice over I doubt if our experience would make us avoid them.
192.--When our vices leave us we flatter ourselves with the idea we have
left them.
193.--There are relapses in the diseases of the mind as in those of
the body; what we call a cure is often no more than an intermission or
change of disease.
194.--The defects of the mind are like the wounds of the body. Whatever
care we take to heal them the scars ever remain, and there is always
danger of their reopening.
195.--The reason which often prevents us abandoning a single vice is
having so many.
196.--We easily forget those faults which are known only to ourselves.
[Seneca says "Innocentem quisque se dicit respiciens testem non
conscientiam."]
197.--There are men of whom we can never believe evil without having
seen it. Yet there are very few in whom we should be surprised to see
it.
198.--We exaggerate the glory of some men to detract from that of
others, and we should praise Prince Conde and Marshal Turenne much less
if we did not want to blame them both.
[The allusion to Conde and Turenne gives the date at which these maxims
were published in 1665. Conde and Turenne were after their campaign with
the Imperialists at the height of their fame. It proves the truth of
the remark of Tacitus, "Populus neminem sine aemulo sinit."-- Tac. Ann.
xiv.]
199.--The desire to appear clever often prevents our being so.
200.--Virtue would not go far did not vanity escort her.
201.--He who thinks he has the power to content the world greatly
deceives himself, but he who thinks that the world cannot be content
with him deceives himself yet more.
202.--Falsely honest men are those who disguise their faults both
to themselves and others; truly honest men are those who know them
perfectly and confess them.
203.--He is really wise who is nettled at nothing.
204.--The coldness of women is a balance and burden they add to their
beauty.
205.--Virtue in woman is often the love of reputation and repose.
206.--He is a truly good man who desires always to bear the inspection
of good men.
207.--Folly follows us at all stages of life. If one appears wise 'tis
but because his folly is proportioned to his age and fortune.
208.--There are foolish people who know and who skilfully use their
folly.
209.--Who lives without folly is not so wise as he thinks.
210.--In growing old we become more foolish--and more wise.
211.--There are people who are like farces, which are praised but for a
time (however foolish and distasteful they may be).
[The last clause is added from Edition of 1665.]
212.--Most people judge men only by success or by fortune.
213.--Love of glory, fear of shame, greed of fortune, the desire to make
life agreeable and comfortable, and the wish to depreciate others are
often causes of that bravery so vaunted among men.
[Junius said of the Marquis of Granby, "He was as brave as a total
absence of all feeling and reflection could make him."--21st Jan. 1769.]
214.--Valour in common soldiers is a perilous method of earning their
living.
["Men venture necks to gain a fortune, The soldier does it ev{'}ry day,
(Eight to the week) for sixpence pay." {--Samuel Butler,} Hudibras, Part
II., canto i., line 512.]
215.--Perfect bravery and sheer cowardice are two extremes rarely found.
The space between them is vast, and embraces all other sorts of courage.
The difference between them is not less than between faces and tempers.
Men will freely expose themselves at the beginning of an action, and
relax and be easily discouraged if it should last. Some are content to
satisfy worldly honour, and beyond that will do little else. Some are
not always equally masters of their timidity. Others allow themselves
to be overcome by panic; others charge because they dare not remain at
their posts. Some may be found whose courage is strengthened by small
perils, which prepare them to face greater dangers. Some will dare a
sword cut and flinch from a bullet; others dread bullets little and fear
to fight with swords. These varied kinds of courage agree in this, that
night, by increasing fear and concealing gallant or cowardly actions,
allows men to spare themselves. There is even a more general discretion
to be observed, for we meet with no man who does all he would have done
if he were assured of getting off scot-free; so that it is certain that
the fear of death does somewhat subtract from valour.
[See also "Table Talk of Napoleon," who agrees with this, so far as to
say that few, but himself, had a two o'clock of the morning valour.]
216.--Perfect valour is to do without witnesses what one would do before
all the world.
["It is said of untrue valours that some men's valours are in the eyes
of them that look on."--Bacon, Advancement Of Learning{, (1605), Book I,
Section II, paragraph 5}.]
217.--Intrepidity is an extraordinary strength of soul which raises it
above the troubles, disorders, and emotions which the sight of great
perils can arouse in it: by this strength heroes maintain a calm
aspect and preserve their reason and liberty in the most surprising and
terrible accidents.
218.--Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.
[So Massillon, in one of his sermons, "Vice pays homage to virtue in
doing honour to her appearance."
So Junius, writing to the Duke of Grafton, says, "You have done as much
mischief to the community as Machiavel, if Machiavel had not known that
an appearance of morals and religion are useful in society."--28 Sept.
1771.]
219.--Most men expose themselves in battle enough to save their honor,
few wish to do so more than sufficiently, or than is necessary to make
the design for which they expose themselves succeed.
220.--Vanity, shame, and above all disposition, often make men brave and
women chaste.
["Vanity bids all her sons be brave and all her daughters chaste and
courteous. But why do we need her instruction?"--Sterne, Sermons.]
221.--We do not wish to lose life; we do wish to gain glory, and this
makes brave men show more tact and address in avoiding death, than
rogues show in preserving their fortunes.
222.--Few persons on the first approach of age do not show wherein their
body, or their mind, is beginning to fail.
223.--Gratitude is as the good faith of merchants: it holds commerce
together; and we do not pay because it is just to pay debts, but because
we shall thereby more easily find people who will lend.
224.--All those who pay the debts of gratitude cannot thereby flatter
themselves that they are grateful.
225.--What makes false reckoning, as regards gratitude, is that the
pride of the giver and the receiver cannot agree as to the value of the
benefit.
["The first foundation of friendship is not the power of conferring
benefits, but the equality with which they are received, and may be
returned."--Junius's Letter To The King.]
226.--Too great a hurry to discharge of an obligation is a kind of
ingratitude.
227.--Lucky people are bad hands at correcting their faults; they always
believe that they are right when fortune backs up their vice or folly.
["The power of fortune is confessed only by the miserable, for the happy
impute all their success to prudence and merit."--Swift, Thoughts On
Various Subjects]
228.--Pride will not owe, self-love will not pay.
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 noble 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 sex 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