We need very strong ears to hear ourselves judged frankly, and because there are few who can endure frank criticism without being stung by it, those who venture to criticize us perform a remarkable act of friendship, for to undertake to wound or offend a man for his own good is to have a healthy love for him.
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It is a custom of our justice to condemn some as a warning to others.
To condemn them because they have done wrong would be stupidity, as Plato says. For what is done cannot be undone. But they are condemned that they may not go wrong again in the same way, or that others may avoid following their example.
We do not correct the man we hang; we correct others through him. I do the same....
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What harm cause not those huge draughts or pictures which wanton youth with chalk or coals draw in each passage, wall or stairs of our great houses, whence a cruel contempt of our natural store is bred in them?
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Man is quite insane. He wouldn't know how to create a maggot, and he creates Gods by the dozen.
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But when all is summed up, a man never speaks of himself without losing thereby. His self-accusations are always believed; his slef-praise disbelieved.
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The plainest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness: her state is like that of things in the regions above the moon, always clear and serene
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Lying is a terrible vice, it testifies that one despises God, but fears men.
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There never were, in the world, two opinions alike, no more than two hairs, or two grains the most universal quality is diversity.
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There is no course of life so weak and sottish as that which is managed by order, method, and discipline.
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It is much more easy to accuse the one sex than to excuse the other.
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God gives us our relatives- thank God we can choose our friends.
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Riches, like glory or heath, have no more beauty or pleasure than their possessor is pleased to lend them.
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It is a sign of contraction of the mind when it is content, or of weariness.
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Virtue craves a steep and thorny path.
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My reason is not framed to bend or stoop: my knees are.
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The most unhappy and frail creatures are men and yet they are the proudest.
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A learned person is not learned in everything; but the capable person is capable in everything, even in what he is ignorant of
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Children's playthings are not sports and should be deemed as their most serious actions.
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The want of goods is easily repaired, but the poverty of the soul is irreparable.
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Philosophy is doubt.
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How many things which served us yesterday as articles of faith, are fables for us today.
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Anyone who does not feel sufficiently strong in memory should not meddle with lying.
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The finest lives, in my opinion, are those who rank in the common model, and with the human race, but without miracle, without extravagance.
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All the fame you should look for in life is to have lived it quietly.
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He who fears he will suffer, already suffers because of his fear.
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Wit is a dangerous weapon, even to the possessor, if he knows not how to use it discreetly
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We are born to inquire into truth it belongs to a greater to possess it.
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Friendship is the highest degree of perfection in society.
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If a man should importune me to give a reason why I loved him, I find it could no otherwise be expressed, than by making answer because it was he, because it was I.
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Even on the most exalted throne in the world we are only sitting on our own bottom.
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