No. 218. Hypocrisy is a homage which vice renders to virtue.
Of the foregoing maxim it may justly be said, that its truth and point depend upon the assumption, implicit, that there is such a thing as virtue—an assumption which the whole tenor of the “Maxims” in general contradicts.
How incisive the following:
No. 226. Too great eagerness to requite an obligation is a kind of ingratitude.
No. 298. The gratitude of most men is only a secret desire to receive greater favors.
No. 304. We often forgive those who bore us, but we cannot forgive those whom we bore.
No. 313. Why should we have memory enough to retain even the smallest particulars of what has happened to us, and yet not have enough to remember how often we have told them to the same individual?
The first following maxim satirizes both princes and courtiers. It might be entitled, “How to insult a prince, and not suffer for your temerity”:
No. 320. To praise princes for virtues they have not, is to insult them with impunity.