6. Fashion, though powerful in all things, is not more so in any, than in being well or ill at court. There are times when disgrace is a kind of fire, that purifies all bad qualities, and illuminates every good one. There are others, in which the being out of favor is unbecoming a man of character.
7. Sufferings, in people of the first rank, supply the want of virtue.
8. There is a confused kind of jumble, which practice sometimes teaches; but it is never to be understood by speculation.
9. The greatest powers cannot injure a man’s character, whose reputation is unblemished among his party.
10. We are as often duped by diffidence, as by confidence.
11. The greatest evils are not arrived at their utmost period until those who are in power have lost all sense of shame. At such a time those who should obey shake off all respect and subordination. Then is lethargic indolence roused; but roused by convulsions.
12. A veil ought always to be drawn over whatever may be said or thought concerning the rights of the people, or of kings; which agree best when least mentioned.[58]
13. There are, at times, situations so very unfortunate, that whatever is undertaken must be wrong. Chance, alone, never throws people into such dilemmas; and they happen only to those who bring them upon themselves.
14. It is more unbecoming a minister to say, than to do, silly things.
15. The advice given to a minister, by an obnoxious person, is always thought bad.