CX.--There are certain faults which placed in a good light please more than perfection itself. (See Maxim 354.) CXI.--That which makes us so bitter against those who do us a shrewd turn, is because they think themselves more clever than we are. (See Maxim 350.) CXII.--We are always bored by those whom we bore. (See Maxim 352.) CXIII.--The harm that others do us is often less than that we do ourselves. (See Maxim 363.) CXIV.--It is never more difficult to speak well than when we are ashamed of being silent. CXV.--Those faults are always pardonable that we have the courage to avow. CXVI.--The greatest fault of penetration is not that it goes to the bottom of a matter--but beyond it. (See Maxim 377.) CXVII.--We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it. (See Maxim 378.) CXVIII.--When our merit declines, our taste declines also. (See Maxim 379.) CXIX.--Fortune discovers our vices and our virtues, as the light makes objects plain to the sight. (See Maxim 380.) CXX.--Our actions are like rhymed verse-ends (Bouts-Rimes) which everyone turns as he pleases. (See Maxim 382.) CXXI.--There is nothing more natural, nor more deceptive, than to believe that we are beloved. CXXII.--We would rather see those to whom we have done a benefit, than those who have done us one. CXXIII.--It is more difficult to hide the opinions we have than to feign those which we have not. CXXIV.--Renewed friendships require more care than those that have never been broken. CXXV.--A man to whom no one is pleasing is much more unhappy than one who pleases nobody. REFLECTIONS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, BY THE DUKE DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD I. On Confidence. Though sincerity and confidence have many points of resemblance, they have yet many points of difference. Sincerity is an openness of heart, which shows us what we are, a love of truth, a dislike to deception, a wish to compensate our faults and to lessen them by the merit of confessing them. Confidence leaves us less liberty, its rules are stricter, it requires more prudence and reticence, and we are not always free to give it. It relates not only to ourselves, since our interests are often mixed up with those of others; it requires great delicacy not to expose our friends in exposing ourselves, not to draw upon their goodness to enhance the value of what we give. Confidence always pleases those who receive it. It is a tribute we pay to their merit, a deposit we commit to their trust, a pledge which gives them a claim upon us, a kind of dependence to which we voluntarily submit. I do not wish from what I have said to depreciate confidence, so necessary to man. It is in society the link between acquaintance and friendship. I only wish to state its limits to make it true and real. I would that it was always sincere, always discreet, and that it had neither weakness nor interest. I know it is hard to place proper limits on being taken into all our friends' confidence, and taking them into all ours.