The Reason Why So Few People Are

There Are Various Sorts Of Curiosity; One Is From Interest, Which Makes Us Desire To Know That Which May Be Useful To Us; And The Other, From Pride Which Comes From The Wish To Know What Others Are Ignorant Of.

All Our Qualities, Whether Good Or Bad, Are Unstable And Ambiguous, And Almost All Are At The Mery Of Chance.

It Is A Mistake To Imagine, That The Violent Passions Only, Such As Ambition And Love, Can Triumph Over The Rest. Idleness, Languid As It Is, Often Masters Them All; She Influences All Our Designs And Actions, And Insensibly Consumes And Destroys Both Passions And Virtues.

The Secret Of Pleasing In Conversation Is Not To Explain Too Much Everything; To Say Them Half And Leave A Little For Divination Is A Mark Of The Good Opinion We Have Of Others, And Nothing Flatters Their Self-love More.

We Feel Good And Ill Only In Proportion To Our Self-love.