ever 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:--

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. 318. 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.

No. 347. We find few sensible people, except those who are of our
way of thinking.

No. 409. We should often be ashamed of our best actions, if the
world saw the motives which cause them.

No. 424. We boast of faults the reverse of those we have: when we
are weak, we boast of being stubborn.

Here, at length, is a maxim that does not depress,--that animates you:--

No. 432. To praise noble actions heartily, is in some sort to take
part in them.

The following is much less exhilarating:--

No. 454. There are few instances in which we should make a bad
bargain, by giving up the good that is said of us, on condition
that nothing bad be said.

This, also:--

No. 458. Our enemies come nearer to the truth, in the opinions they
form of us, than we do ours