Where everything is bad it must be good to know the worst.
The deadliest foe to virtue would be complete self-knowledge.
There are persons who, when they cease to shock us, cease to interest us.
An aphorism is true where it has fixed the impression of a genuine experience.
But when one has ceased to have them, too often one cannot.
The propriety of some persons seems to consist in having improper thoughts about their neighbors.