Maxims

Question 1

Suspect your passions

Answer 1

When they want to appear logical. They are government by self-interest and are dangerous guides.

Question 2

People hate those to whom

Answer 2

They are under obligation. (Question this)

Question 3

A man condemned to die

Answer 3

Often affects a firmness and a scorn of death which are at bottom, his fear of facing it. This stoicism is to his eyes what the bandage is to his eyes.

Question 4

Our good qualities draw

Answer 4

Harsher criticisms than our bad

Question 5

Had we no faults,

Answer 5

We should not take so much pleasure in discovering them in others

Question 6

Jealousy thrives on…while…

Answer 6

Doubt. Certainty goads it to fury, or ends it.

Question 7

Pride spares

Answer 7

Us the painful awareness of our shortcomings

Question 8

We criticize faults less to

Answer 8

Correct them, than to prove that we do not possess them.

Question 9

Egotism plays many parts, even that

Answer 9

Of altruism

Question 10

Performances are measured by

Answer 10

Fear (or lack of it)

Question 11

Most men are too weak

Answer 11

To follow their best judgement

Question 12

Man thinks he leads…when his head…

Answer 12

Even when he is being led. When his head seeks one goal, his heart imperceptibly draws him to another.

Question 13

True happiness lies in that which

Answer 13

Pleases ourselves, not others

Question 14

Self-satisfied men pride themselves on their misfortunes

Answer 14

So they can persuade themselves, and others, that they are worthy to be the butts of fate.

Question 15

To gain a position in the world

Answer 15

We go to any lengths to convince people we have one

Question 16

However much credit men take for their achievements,

Answer 16

Chance is more often responsible than wisdom

Question 17

A clever man…while a fool..

Answer 17

A clever man can benefit from catastrophe, while a fool can turn good luck to his disadvantage

Question 18

Sincerity is…but…

Answer 18

Open-heartedness, but in most, what looks like sincerity is dissimulation practiced to gain the confidence of others

Question 19

Grace is to the body

Answer 19

What reason is to the mind

Question 20

Judged by its consequences, Love is

Answer 20

More akin to hate than to affection

Question 21

It’s not as hard to find a woman who has never committed an indiscretion

Answer 21

As it is to find a woman who has committed only one (it opens the floodgates)

Question 22

In most men, love of justice

Answer 22

Is but a fear of suffering injustice

Question 23

What we call friendship

Answer 23

Is a scheme for the mutual exchange of advantages and favors that improves our self-esteem;

Question 24

A waning love-affair

Answer 24

Welcomes an infidelity as a release (from constancy)

Question 25

People sacrifice themselves to friends in high places

Answer 25

Out of interested motives, and so they may profit

Question 26

Distrust justifies

Answer 26

Its deceptions

Question 27

Why expect others to guard our secrets

Answer 27

If we cannot keep them ourselves (in the first place).

Question 28

We judge other’s merits

Answer 28

Based on how they treat us (and/or how well we like them).

Question 29

Lazy men are..they seek to..

Answer 29

The hardest taskmasters. They seek to appear diligent when they have satisfied their own sloth.

Question 30

Old people like to give good advice

Answer 30

Because they can no longer set bad examples

Question 31

Grudging praise by the envious

Answer 31

Is proof of exceptional merit

Question 32

Judgement is

Answer 32

The light of the mind, goes to the root of things, perceives what should be noted

Question 33

No ones hesitates to praise his own heart

Answer 33

But one must dare to praise his mind

Question 34

Intellectual politeness

Answer 34

Reveals delicacy and purity of thought

Question 35

Intellectual gallantry is the art of saying

Answer 35

Flattering things in an agreeable way

Question 36

A spontaneous expression

Answer 36

Is often more accurate than the most studied effort

Question 37

Those who know their minds best

Answer 37

Know their hearts least (thinkers)

Question 38

Stumbling on wisdom makes

Answer 38

No man wise.

Question 39

One type of flirting

Answer 39

Is calling attention to our sincerity (“no, I’m serious!”)

Question 40

The mind cannot pretend

Answer 40

To be the heart for long

Question 41

We are never as liberal as with

Answer 41

Advice

Question 42

We never forget or forgive a friend or foe who betrayed us, yet

Answer 42

We never resent it when we betray ourselves

Question 43

A man is never less sincere than when

Answer 43

He asks for or gives advice; in asking for counsel, he seeks for his friend to commend his actions; in giving advice, you repay the confidence of others while furthering your own ends through your counsel (in many men)

Question 44

No deception is keener than

Answer 44

Feigning cleverly to fall into a trap that was laid for you. People are most often deceived when they seek to deceive others (and the intended deceived becomes the deceiver)

Question 45

A desire not to deceive others

Answer 45

Constantly lays us open to deception

Question 46

Deception is often the fruit

Answer 46

Of weakness, (or inability to handle or admit the truth), than the intent to deceive

Question 47

((Sometimes people lie to you

Answer 47

Because they can’t handle their own truth, or prefer the lie to the truth, because they don’t lie who they are and would spare you that))

Question 48

Often we do right that

Answer 48

Later we may do wrong with impunity

Question 49

When we resist temptation it is

Answer 49

Often because the temptation is weak (or we are temporarily immunized to it), not because we are strong

Question 50

The cleverest men go through life

Answer 50

Decrying trickery, either to be in a position to deceive others in a crisis, or to achieve a great ambition

Question 51

Habitual trickery

Answer 51

Is a sign of small intellect

Question 52

Super cleverness is...true...

Answer 52

Is indelicate; true delicacy rests on true cleverness

Question 53

The surest way to be deceived

Answer 53

Is to think yourself clever than your neighbor or friends or enemy

Question 54

It is easier to preach

Answer 54

Virtue than to practice it

Question 55

Our true qualities never make us as

Answer 55

Ridiculous as those we affect

Question 56

We prefer to malign

Answer 56

Ourselves than to not talk about ourselves at all

Question 57

Even the most charming and clever do little more than appear attentive

Answer 57

While in their eyes flash a look of bewilderment when the other talks, so anxious to return to their own ideas. (Listen well: To be bent on pleasing yourself is a poor way of pleasing or convincing others).

Question 58

We boast that we are never lonely only

Answer 58

Because we are too vain to admit we find ourselves poor company

Question 59

Powerful intellects say much in few words, while

Answer 59

Small minds talk much and say little

Question 60

We emphasize the good qualities of others

Answer 60

More because we esteem our own virtues, inviting praise by appearing to praise others