of the
world.

56.--To establish ourselves in the world we do everything to appear as
if we were established.

57.--Although men flatter themselves with their great actions, they are
not so often the result of a great design as of chance.

58.--It would seem that our actions have lucky or unlucky stars to which
they owe a great part of the blame or praise which is given them.

59.--There are no accidents so unfortunate from which skilful men will
not draw some advantage, nor so fortunate that foolish men will not turn
them to their hurt.

60.--Fortune turns all things to the advantage of those on whom she
smiles.

61.--The happiness or unhappiness of men depends no less upon their
dispositions than their fortunes.

["Still to ourselves in every place consigned Our own felicity we make
or find." Goldsmith, Traveller, 431.]

62.--Sincerity is an openness of heart; we find it in very few
people; what we usually see is only an artful dissimulation to win the
confidence of others.

63.--The aversion to lying is often a hidden ambition to render our
words credible and weighty, and to attach a religious aspect to our
conversation.

64.--Truth does not do as much good in the world, as its counterfeits do
evil.

65.--There is no praise we have not lavished upon Prudence; and yet she
cannot assure to us the most trifling event.

[The author corrected this maxim several times, in 1665 it is No.
75; 1666, No. 66; 1671-5, No. 65; in the last edition it stands as at
present. In the first he quotes Juvenal, Sat. X., line 315. " Nullum
numen habes si sit Prudentia, nos te; Nos facimus, Fortuna, deam,
coeloque locamus." Applying to Prudence what Juvenal does to Fortune,
and with much greater force.]

66.--A clever man ought to so regulate his interests that each will fall
in due order. Our greediness so often troubles us, making us run after
so many things at the same time, that while we too eagerly look after
the least we miss the greatest.

67.--What grace is to the body good sense is to the mind.

68.--It is difficult to define love; all we can say is, that in the soul
it is a desire to rule, in the mind it is a sympathy, and in the body
it is a hidden and delicate wish to possess what we love--Plus many
mysteries.

["Love is the love of one {singularly,} with desire to be singularly
beloved."--Hobbes{Leviathan, (1651), Part I, Chapter VI}.]

{Two notes about this quotation: (1) the