The Prudence Of The Best

It Is Much Easier To Make Good Men Wise, Than To Make Bad Men Good.

Affectation Proceeds From One Of These Two Causes,--vanity Or Hypocrisy; For As Vanity Puts Us On Affecting False Characters, In Order To Purchase Applause; So Hypocrisy Sets Us On An Endeavor To Avoid Censure, By Concealing Our Vices Under An Appearance Of Their Opposite Virtues.

Great Joy, Especially After A Sudden Change Of Circumstances, Is Apt To Be Silent, And Dwells Rather In The Heart Than On The Tongue.

When The Effects Of Female Jealousy Do Not Appear Openly In Their Proper Colours Of Rage And Fury, We May Suspect That Mischievous Passion To Be At Work Privately, And Attempting To Undermine, What It Doth Not Attack Above-ground.

Prudence Is A Duty Which We Owe Ourselves, And If We Will Be So Much Our Own Enemies As To Neglect It, We Are Not To Wonder If The World Is Deficient In Discharging Their Duty To Us; For When A Man Lays The Foundation Of His Own Ruin, Others Too Often Are Apt To Build Upon It.