173.—There are different kinds of curiosity: one springs from interest, which makes us desire to know everything that may be profitable to us; another from pride, which springs from a desire of knowing what others are ignorant of.
174.—It is far better to accustom our mind to bear the ills we have than to speculate on those which may befall us.
["Rather bear th{ose} ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of." {—Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III, Scene I, Hamlet.}]
175.—Constancy in love is a perpetual inconstancy which causes our heart to attach itself to all the qualities of the person we love in succession, sometimes giving the preference to one, sometimes to another. This constancy is merely inconstancy fixed, and limited to the same person.
176.—There are two kinds of constancy in love, one arising from incessantly finding in the loved one fresh objects to love, the other from regarding it as a point of honour to be constant.
177.—Perseverance is not deserving of blame or praise, as it is merely the continuance of tastes and feelings which we can neither create or destroy.
178.—What makes us like new studies is not so much the weariness we have of the old or the wish for change as the desire to be admired by those who know more than ourselves, and the hope of advantage over those who know less.
179.—We sometimes complain of the levity of our friends to justify our own by anticipation.
180.—Our repentance is not so much sorrow for the ill we have done as fear of the ill that may happen to us.
181.—One sort of inconstancy springs from levity or weakness of mind, and makes us accept everyone's opinion, and another more excusable comes from a surfeit of matter.