It is stepping very low to get very high.
Men by Habit make irregular Stretches of Power, without discerning the Consequence and Extent of them.
Eagerness is apt to overlook Consequences, it is loth to be stopt in its Career; for when Men are in great haste, they see only in a straight Line.
Of Cunning and Knavery.
Cunning is so apt to grow into Knavery, that an honest Man will avoid the Temptation of it. But Men in this Age are half bribed by the Ambition of circumventing, without any other encouragements. So proud of the Character of being able Men, that they do not care to have their Dexterity confined.
In this Age, when it is said of a Man, He knows how to live, it may be imply’d he is not very honest.
An honest Man must lose so many Occasions of Getting, that the World will hardly allow him the Character of an Able one.
There is however more Wit requisite to be an honest Man, than there is to be a Knave.
The most necessary thing in the World, and yet the least usual, is to reflect that those we deal with, may know how to be as arrant Knaves as ourselves.
The Eagerness of a Knave maketh him often as catchable, as Ignorance maketh a Fool.