No one but the master can promote the cause of Art. Patrons help the master,--that is right and proper; but that does not always mean that Art is helped. 134 The most foolish of all errors is for clever young men to believe that they forfeit their originality in recognising a truth which has already been recognised by others. 135 Scholars are generally malignant when they are refuting others; and if they think a man is making a mistake, they straightway look upon him as their mortal enemy. 136 Beauty can never really understand itself. III 137 It is much easier to recognise error than to find truth; for error lies on the surface and may be overcome; but truth lies in the depths, and to search for it is not given to every one. 138 We all live on the past, and through the past are destroyed. 139 We are no sooner about to learn some great lesson than we take refuge in our own innate poverty of soul, and yet for all that the lesson has not been quite in vain. 140 The world of empirical morality consists for the most part of nothing but ill-will and envy. 141 Life seems so vulgar, so easily content with the commonplace things of every day, and yet it always nurses and cherishes certain higher claims in secret, and looks about for the means of satisfying them. 142 Confidences are strange things. If you listen only to one man, it is possible that he is deceived or mistaken; if you listen to many, they are in a like case; and, generally, you cannot get at the truth at all. 143 No one should desire to live in irregular circumstances; but if by chance a man falls into them, they test his character and show of how much determination he is capable. 144 An honourable man with limited ideas often sees through the rascality of the most cunning jobber. 145 If a man feels no love, he must learn how to flatter; otherwise he will not succeed. 146 Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must act in spite of it, and then criticism will gradually yield to him. 147 The masses cannot dispense with men of ability, and such men are always a burden to them. 148 If a man spreads my failings abroad, he is my master, even though he were my servant. 149 Whether memoirs are written by masters of servants, or by servants of masters, the processes always meet. 150 If you lay duties upon people and give them no rights, you must pay them well. 151 I can promise to be sincere, but not to be impartial. 152 Ingratitude is always a kind of weakness. I have never known men of ability to be ungrateful. 153 We are all so limited that we always think we are right; and so we may conceive of an extraordinary mind which not only errs but has a positive delight in error. 154 It is very rare to find pure and steady activity in the accomplishment of what is good and right. We usually see pedantry trying to keep back, and audacity trying to go on too fast. 155