Part 12 (2/2)

300.--There are follies as catching as infections.

301.--Many people despise, but few know how to bestow wealth.

302.--Only in things of small value we usually are bold enough not to trust to appearances.

303.--Whatever good quality may be imputed to us, we ourselves find nothing new in it.

304.--We may forgive those who bore us, we cannot forgive those whom we bore.

305.--Interest which is accused of all our misdeeds often should be praised for our good deeds.

306.--We find very few ungrateful people when we are able to confer favours.

307.--It is as proper to be boastful alone as it is ridiculous to be so in company.

308.--Moderation is made a virtue to limit the ambition of the great; to console ordinary people for their small fortune and equally small ability.

309.--There are persons fated to be fools, who commit follies not only by choice, but who are forced by fortune to do so.

310.--Sometimes there are accidents in our life the skilful extrication from which demands a little folly.

311.--If there be men whose folly has never appeared, it is because it has never been closely looked for.

312.--Lovers are never tired of each other,--they always speak of themselves.

313.--How is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?

[”Old men who yet retain the memory of things past, and forget how often they have told them, are most tedious companions.”--Montaigne, {Essays, Book I, Chapter IX}.]

314.--The extreme delight we take in talking of ourselves should warn us that it is not shared by those who listen.

315.--What commonly hinders us from showing the recesses of our heart to our friends, is not the distrust we have of them, but that we have of ourselves.

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