Our Virtues Are Dearer To

Children Are Taught To Fear And Obey; The Avarice, Pride, Or Timidity Of Parents Teaches Children Economy, Arrogance, Or Submission. They Are Also Encouraged To Be Imitators, A Course To Which They Are Already Only Too Much Inclined. No One Thinks Of Making Them Original, Courageous, Independent.

Men Sometimes Feel Injured By Praise Because It Assigns A Limit To Their Merit; Few People Are Modest Enough Not To Take Offense That One Appreciates Them.

As Soon As An Opinion Becomes Common It Is Sufficient Reason For Men To Abandon It And To Uphold The Opposite Opinion Until That In Its Turn Grows Old, And They Require To Distinguish Themselves By Other Things. Thus If They Attain Their Goal In Some Art Or Science, We Must Expect Them Soon To Cast It Aside To Acquire Some Fresh Fame, And This Is Partly The Reason Why The Most Splendid Ages Degenerate So Quickly, And, Scarcely Emerged From Barbarism, Plunge Into It Again.

All Men Are Born Truthful And Die Liars.

Our Opinion Of Others Is Not So Variable As Our Opinion Of Ourselves.