No. 147. Few are wise enough to prefer wholesome blame to treacherous praise.
No. 149. Disclaiming praise is a wish to be praised a second time.
No. 152. If we did not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could not hurt us.
No. 184. We acknowledge our faults in order to atone, by our sincerity, for the harm they do us in the minds of others.
No. 199. The desire to appear able often prevents our becoming so.
No. 201. Whoever thinks he can do without the world, deceives himself much; but whoever thinks the world cannot do without him, deceives himself much more.
With the following, contrast Ruskin’s noble paradox, that the soldier’s business, rightly conceived, is self-sacrifice; his ideal purpose being, not to kill, but to be killed:
No. 214. Valor, in private soldiers, is a perilous calling, which they have taken to in order to gain their living.
Here is, perhaps, the most current of all La Rochefoucauld’s maxims: