More maxims of La Rochefoucauld:

• “We should often be ashamed of our best Actions, if the world saw all their Motives.”
• “If we had no Faults ourselves, we should not take such Pleasure in observing those of others.”
• “The Reason we are so angry with such as trick us is, because they think they have more Wit than we.”
• “There are Heroes in Ill, as well as in Good.”
• “There are People who are disagreeable with great Merit; and others who with great Faults are agreeable.”
• “We easily forget Crimes that are known to none but ourselves.”
• “To judge of Love by most of its Effects, one would think it more like Hatred than Kindness.”
• “Our Merit procures us the Esteem of Men of Sense, and our Fortune that of the Public.”
• “Narrowness of Mind is the Cause of Obstinacy; and we don’t easily believe beyond what we see.”
• “Quarrels would not last long if the Fault was but on one Side.”
• “We are not able to act up to our Reason.”
• “Men are oftener treacherous through Weakness than Design.”
• “Our Self-love bears with less Patience the Condemnation of our Tastes, than of our Opinions.”
• “We are almost always tired with the Company of those whom we ought not to be tired of.”
• “The Mind, thro’ Laziness and Constancy, fixes on what is easy or agreeable to it. This Habit bounds our Knowledge; and no Man has ever given himself the trouble to extend and carry his Genius as far as it was capable of going.”

And “Few People are well-acquainted with Death. ‘Tis generally submitted to thro’ Stupidity and Custom, not Resolution; and most Men die merely because they can’t help it.”