We Often Brag That We

Nothing Hinders A Thing From Being Natural So Much As The Straining Ourselves To Make It Seem So.

He Who Refuses Praise The First Time That It Is Offered Does So Because He Would Hear It A Second Time.

Some Crimes Get Honor And Renown By Being Committed With More Pomp, By A Greater Number, And In A Higher Degree Of Wickedness Thanothers. Hence It Is That Public Robberies, Plunderings, And Sackings Have Been Looked Upon As Excellencies And Noble Achievements, And The Seizing Of Whole Countries, However Unjustly And Barbarously, Is Dignified With The Glorious Name Of Gaining Conquests.

Love Has Its Name Borrowed By A Great Number Of Dealings And Affairs That Are Attributed To It--in Which It Has No Greater Part Than The Doge In What Is Done At Venice.

The Reason We Do Not Let Our Friends See The Very Bottom Of Our Hearts Is Not So Much Distrust Of Them As Distrust Of Ourselves.