144.--We do not like to praise, and we never praise without a motive. Praise is flattery, artful, hidden, delicate, which gratifies differently him who praises and him who is praised. The one takes it as the reward of merit, the other bestows it to show his impartiality and knowledge. 145.--We often select envenomed praise which, by a reaction upon those we praise, shows faults we could not have shown by other means. 146.--Usually we only praise to be praised. 147.--Few are sufficiently wise to prefer censure which is useful to praise which is treacherous. 148.--Some reproaches praise; some praises reproach. ["Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And, without sneering, teach the rest to sneer." Pope {Essay On Man, (1733), Epistle To Dr. Arbuthnot.}] 149.--The refusal of praise is only the wish to be praised twice. [The modesty which pretends to refuse praise is but in truth a desire to be praised more highly. Edition 1665.] 150.--The desire which urges us to deserve praise strengthens our good qualities, and praise given to wit, valour, and beauty, tends to increase them. 151.--It is easier to govern others than to prevent being governed. 152.--If we never flattered ourselves the flattery of others would not hurt us. ["Adulatione servilia fingebant securi de fragilitate credentis." Tacit. Ann. xvi.] 153.--Nature makes merit but fortune sets it to work. 154.--Fortune cures us of many faults that reason could not. 155.--There are some persons who only disgust with their abilities, there are persons who please even with their faults. 156.--There are persons whose only merit consists in saying and doing stupid things at the right time, and who ruin all if they change their manners. 157.--The fame of great men ought always to be estimated by the means used to acquire it. 158.--Flattery is base coin to which only our vanity gives currency. 159.--It is not enough to have great qualities, we should also have the management of them. 160.--However brilliant an action it should not be esteemed great unless the result of a great motive. 161.--A certain harmony should be kept between actions and ideas if we desire to estimate the effects that they produce. 162.--The art of using moderate abilities to advantage wins praise, and often acquires more reputation than real brilliancy. 163.--Numberless arts appear foolish whose secre{t} motives are most wise and weighty. 164.--It is much easier to seem fitted for posts we do not fill than for those we do. 165.--Ability wins us the esteem of the true men, luck that of the people. 166.--The world oftener rewards the appearance of merit than merit itself. 167.--Avarice is more opposed to economy than to liberality. 168.--However deceitful hope may be, yet she carries us on pleasantly to the end of life. ["Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die." Pope: Essay On Man, Ep. ii.]