LXIX.--It is a common thing to hazard life to escape dishonour; but, when this is done, the actor takes very little pain to make the enterprise succeed in which he is engaged, and certain it is that they who hazard their lives to take a city or to conquer a province are better officers, have more merit, and wider and more useful, views than they who merely expose themselves to vindicate their honour; it is very common to find people of the latter class, very rare to find those of the former. (Letter To M. Esprit, Ms., Fol. 173, MAX. 219.) LXX.--The taste changes, but the will remains the same. (To Madame De Sable, Fol. 223, Max. 252.) LXXI.--The power which women whom we love have over us is greater than that which we have over ourselves. (To The Same, Ms., Fol. 211, Max. 259) LXXII.--That which makes us believe so easily that others have defects is that we all so easily believe what we wish. (To The Same, Ms., Fol. 223, Max. 397.) LXXIII.--I am perfectly aware that good sense and fine wit are tedious to every age, but tastes are not always the same, and what is good at one time will not seem so at another. This makes me think that few persons know how to be old. (To The Same, Fol. 202, Max. 423.) LXXIV.--God has permitted, to punish man for his original sin, that he should be so fond of his self-love, that he should be tormented by it in all the actions of his life. (Ms., Fol. 310, Max. 494.) LXXV.--And so far it seems to me the philosophy of a lacquey can go; I believe that all gaity in that state of life is very doubtful indeed. (To Madame De Sable, Fol. 161, Max. 504.) [In the maxim cited the author relates how a footman about to be broken on the wheel danced on the scaffold. He seems to think that in his day the life of such servants was so miserable that their merriment was very doubtful.] THIRD SUPPLEMENT [The fifty following Maxims are taken from the Sixth Edition of the Pensees De La Rochefoucauld, published by Claude Barbin, in 1693, more than twelve years after the death of the author (17th May, 1680). The reader will find some repetitions, but also some very valuable maxims.] LXXVI.--Many persons wish to be devout; but no one wishes to be humble. LXXVII.--The labour of the body frees us from the pains of the mind, and thus makes the poor happy. LXXVIII.--True penitential sorrows (mortifications) are those which are not known, vanity renders the others easy enough. LXXIX.--Humility is the altar upon which God wishes that we should offer him his sacrifices. LXXX.--Few things are needed to make a wise man happy; nothing can make a fool content; that is why most men are miserable. LXXXI.--We trouble ourselves less to become happy, than to make others believe we are so. LXXXII.--It is more easy to extinguish the first desire than to satisfy those which follow. LXXXIII.--Wisdom is to the soul what health is to the body.