Present Interest, like present Love, maketh all other Friendship look cold to it, but it faileth in the holding.
When one Knave betrayeth another, the one is not to be blamed, nor the other to be pitied.
When they complain of one another as if they were honest Men, they ought to be laugh’d at as if they were Fools.
There are some Cunning-men who yet can scarce be called Rational Creatures; yet they are often more successful than Men of Sense, because those they have to deal with are upon a looser Guard; and their Simplicity maketh their Knavery unsuspected.
There is no such thing as a venial Sin against Morality, no such thing as a small Knavery: He that carries a small Crime easily, will carry it on when it grows to be an Ox. But the little Knaves are the greater of the two, because they have less the Excuse of Temptation.
Knavery is so humble, and Merit so proud, that the latter is thrown down because it cannot stoop.
Of Folly and Fools.
There are five Orders of Fools, as of Building: 1. The Blockhead, 2. Coxcomb, 3. Vain Blockhead, 4. Grave Coxcomb, and 5. The Half-witted Fellow; this last is of the Composite Order.
The Follies of grave Men have the Precedence of all others, a ridiculous Dignity, that gives them a Right to be laughed at in the first place.
As the masculine Wit is the strongest, so the masculine Impertinence is the greatest.