Piety is not an end, but a means: a means of attaining the highest culture by the purest tranquillity of soul. 36 Hence it may be observed that those who set up piety as an end and object are mostly hypocrites. 37 When a man is old he must do more than when he was young. 38 To fulfil a duty is still always to feel it as a debt, for it is never quite satisfying to oneself. 39 Defects are perceived only by one who has no love; therefore, to see them, a man must become uncharitable, but not more so than is necessary for the purpose. 40 The greatest piece of good fortune is that which corrects our deficiencies and redeems our mistakes. 41 Reading ought to mean understanding; writing ought to mean knowing something; believing ought to mean comprehending; when you desire a thing, you will have to take it; when you demand it, you will not get it; and when you are experienced, you ought to be useful to others. 42 The stream is friendly to the miller whom it serves; it likes to pour over the mill wheels; what is the good of it stealing through the valley in apathy? 43 Whoso is content with pure experience and acts upon it has enough of truth. The growing child is wise in this sense. 44 Theory is in itself of no use, except in so far as it makes us believe in the connection of phenomena. 45 When a man asks too much and delights in complication, he is exposed to perplexity. 46 Thinking by means of analogies is not to be condemned. Analogy has this advantage, that it comes to no conclusion, and does not, in truth, aim at finality at all. Induction, on the contrary, is fatal, for it sets up an object and keeps it in view, and, working on towards it, drags false and true with it in its train. 47 The absent works upon us by tradition. The usual form of it may be called historical; a higher form, akin to the imaginative faculty, is the mythical. If some third form of it is to be sought behind this last, and it has any meaning, it is transformed into the mystical. It also easily becomes sentimental, so that we appropriate to our use only what suits us. 48 In contemplation as in action, we must distinguish between what may be attained and what is unattainable. Without this, little can be achieved, either in life or in knowledge. 49 _'Le sense commun est le génie de l'humanité.'_