(52.) A man should not pretend to show his talents in the society of men of rank; their very rank forbids it; nor with people of inferior degree who repel you by being always on their guard.
(53.) Men of merit discover, discern, and find out each other reciprocally; he who would be esteemed should frequent persons who are themselves estimable.
(54.) He who is of so lofty a rank as to be above repartee, ought never to joke in a racy kind of way.
(55.) There are some little failings which we freely abandon to censure, and about which we do not dislike being bantered; when we banter others we should select failings of the same kind.
(56.) It is a foolʼs privilege to laugh at an intelligent man; he is in society what a jester is at court—of no consequence whatever.
(57.) Banter is often a proof of want of intelligence.
(58.) You fancy a man your dupe, but if he only pretends to be so, who is the greatest dupe, you or he?
(59.) If you observe carefully those people who praise nobody, who are always finding fault, and are never satisfied with any one, you will discover them to be persons with whom nobody is satisfied.
(60.) The proud and disdainful will find precisely in society the contrary of what they expect, which is to be esteemed.
(61.) The pleasure of social intercourse amongst friends is kept up by a similarity of morals and manners, and by slender differences in opinion about science; this confirms us in our sentiments, exercises our faculties or instructs us through arguments.