us in the path of duty, but our virtue
often gets the praise.

["Quod segnitia erat sapientia vocaretur." Tacitus Hist. I.]

170.--If one acts rightly and honestly, it is difficult to decide
whether it is the effect of integrity or skill.

171.--As rivers are lost in the sea so are virtues in self.

172.--If we thoroughly consider the varied effects of indifference we
find we miscarry more in our duties than in our interests.

173.--There are different kinds of curiosity: one springs from interest,
which makes us desire to know everything that may be profitable to us;
another from pride, which springs from a desire of knowing what others
are ignorant of.

174.--It is far better to accustom our mind to bear the ills we have
than to speculate on those which may befall us.

["Rather bear th{ose} ills we have Than fly to others that we know not
of." {--Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III, Scene I, Hamlet.}]

175.--Constancy in love is a perpetual inconstancy which causes our
heart to attach itself to all the qualities of the person we love
in succession, sometimes giving the preference to one, sometimes to
another. This constancy is merely inconstancy fixed, and limited to the
same person.

176.--There are two kinds of constancy in love, one arising from
incessantly finding in the loved one fresh objects to love, the other
from regarding it as a point of honour to be constant.

177.--Perseverance is not deserving of blame or praise, as it is merely
the continuance of tastes and feelings which we can neither create or
destroy.

178.--What makes us like new studies is not so much the weariness we
have of the old or the wish for change as the desire to be admired by
those who know more than ourselves, and the hope of advantage over those
who know less.

179.--We sometimes complain of the levity of our friends to justify our
own by anticipation.

180.--Our repentance is not so much sorrow for the ill we have done as
fear of the ill that may happen to us.

181.--One sort of inconstancy springs from levity or weakness of mind,
and makes us accept everyone's opinion, and another more excusable comes
from a surfeit of matter.

182.--Vices enter into the composition of virtues as poison into that of
medicines. Prudence collects and blends the two and renders them useful
against the ills of life.

183.--For the credit of virtue we must admit that the greatest
misfortunes of men are those into