288.--There are matters and maladies which at certain times remedies only serve to make worse; true skill consists in knowing when it is dangerous to use them. 289.--Affected simplicity is refined imposture. [Domitianus simplicitatis ac modestiae imagine studium litterarum et amorem carminum simulabat quo velaret animum et fratris aemulationi subduceretur.--Tacitus, Ann. iv.] 290.--There are as many errors of temper as of mind. 291.--Man's merit, like the crops, has its season. 292.--One may say of temper as of many buildings; it has divers aspects, some agreeable, others disagreeable. 293.--Moderation cannot claim the merit of opposing and overcoming Ambition: they are never found together. Moderation is the languor and sloth of the soul, Ambition its activity and heat. 294.--We always like those who admire us, we do not always like those whom we admire. 295.--It is well that we know not all our wishes. 296.--It is difficult to love those we do not esteem, but it is no less so to love those whom we esteem much more than ourselves. 297.--Bodily temperaments have a common course and rule which imperceptibly affect our will. They advance in combination, and successively exercise a secret empire over us, so that, without our perceiving it, they become a great part of all our actions. 298.--The gratitude of most men is but a secret desire of receiving greater benefits. [Hence the common proverb "Gratitude is merely a lively sense of favors to come."] 299.--Almost all the world takes pleasure in paying small debts; many people show gratitude for trifling, but there is hardly one who does not show ingratitude for great favours. 300.--There are follies as catching as infections. 301.--Many people despise, but few know how to bestow wealth. 302.--Only in things of small value we usually are bold enough not to trust to appearances. 303.--Whatever good quality may be imputed to us, we ourselves find nothing new in it. 304.--We may forgive those who bore us, we cannot forgive those whom we bore. 305.--Interest which is accused of all our misdeeds often should be praised for our good deeds. 306.--We find very few ungrateful people when we are able to confer favours. 307.--It is as proper to be boastful alone as it is ridiculous to be so in company. 308.--Moderation is made a virtue to limit the ambition of the great; to console ordinary people for their small fortune and equally small ability. 309.--There are persons fated to be fools, who commit follies not only by choice, but who are forced by fortune to do so. 310.--Sometimes there are accidents in our life the skilful extrication from which demands a little folly. 311.--If there be men whose folly has never appeared, it is because it has never been closely looked for. 312.--Lovers are never tired of each other,--they always speak of themselves.