92.

Whoever places importance in little things is subject to treat slightly the most essential.

93.

Many misers prefer, to the shame of appearing such, the punishment of being profuse.

94.

A covetous person is seldom cured for the passion of gaming. Besides the hopes of gain, he finds in it the advantage of hiding his avarice under an air of disinterestedness.

95.

We are usually mistaken in esteeming men too much; rarely in esteeming them too little.

96.

A man in place has no more friends when he loses his post. It was not, therefore, him, but his place that had friends.

97.

When truth offends no one, it ought to pass out of the mouth as naturally as the air we breathe.

98.

If, with the pains we endure here below we were immortal, we should be the most miserable of all beings. It is sweet and pleasing to hope that we shall not live always.

99.

It seems that all we do is but a rough draught, and that always something remains to be done to make the work complete.

100.

Power is not always proportionate to the will. One should be consulted before the other; but the majority of men begin by willing, and act afterward as they can.

101.

Affectation discovers sooner what one is, than it makes known what one would fain appear to be.

102.

Laziness is a premature death. To be in no action, is not to live.

103.

Great wants proceed from great wealth, and make riches almost equal to poverty.

P

104.

We feel death but once. He who fears death dies every time he thinks of it.

105.

A miser of sixty years old refuses himself necessaries that he may not want them when he is a hundred. Almost all of us make ourselves unhappy by too much forecast.

106.

Nature does not accustom us to suffer from our infancy, but in order to teach us to suffer.

107.

It is happy for human nature that there are desires which cannot be satisfied. Otherwise, the most sorry man would make himself master of the world.

108.

He that keeps his promise only to his own advantage, is scarce more bound than if he had promised nothing. Every promise of interest vanishes as soon as the interest ceases.

109.

I esteem greatly the ignorance of a man,

who believes and confesses his knowledge to be confined to what he knows.

110.

None are rash, when they are not seen by any body.

111.

Man is only weak by the disproportion there is between what he can, and what he is willing to do. The only way he has to increase his strength, is to retrench many of his desires.

112.

Interested benefits are so common, that we need not be astonished if ingratitude is so rare.

113.

We only hate the wicked through interest. If they did us no injury we should look upon them with indifference.

114.

The people most attached to life are almost always those who know least how to enjoy it.

115.

The misfortune of the most learned is not

to know that they are ignorant of what they cannot know.

116.

Too much devotion leads to fanaticism; too much philosophy to irreligion.

117.

The care we take not to suffer, causes nore torment than we should find in supporting what we suffer.

118.

We meet with great difficulty in conquering pride by resisting it: how potent, then, must it be, when flattered?

119.

As we cannot hinder young people from being inconsiderate, we should remember that they have but a short time to be so.

120.

The generality of misers are very good people; they do not cease to amass wealth for others that wish their death.

121.

Life is enjoyed only by bits and scraps: