One May Outwit Another, But Not All

We Easily Forgive Our Friends Those Faults That Do No Affect Us Ourselves.

It Is Not Always From Valor Or From Chastity That Men Are Brave, And Women Chaste.

It Is Much Easier To Seem Fitted For Posts We Do Not Fill Than For Those We Do.

It Is Given To Few Persons To Keep This Secret Well. Those Who Lay Down Rules Too Often Break Them, And The Safest We Are Able To Give Is To Listen Much, To Speak Little, And To Say Nothing That That Will Ever Give Ground Or Regret.

Clemency, Which We Make A Virtue Of, Proceeds Sometimes From Vanity, Sometimes From Indolence, Often From Fear, And Almost Always From A Mixture Of All Three.