To be vain is rather a mark of humility than pride. Vain men delight in
telling what honors have been done them, what great company they have
kept, and the like; by which they plainly confess that these honors were
more than their due and such as their friends would not believe if they
had not been told. Whereas a man truly proud thinks the greatest honors
below his merits, and consequently scorns to boast. I, therefore,
deliver it as a maxim, that whoever desires the character of a proud man
ought to conceal his vanity.--_Swift._
~Vexations.~--Petty vexations may at times be petty, but still they are
vexations. The smallest and most inconsiderable annoyances are the most
piercing. As small letters weary the eye most, so also the smallest
affairs disturb us most.--_Montaigne._
~Vice.~--As to the general design of providence, the two extremes of vice
may serve (like two opposite biases) to keep up the balance of things.
When we speak against one capital vice, we ought to speak against its
opposite; the middle betwixt both is the point for virtue.--_Pope._