More from Maxim 39
- Absence diminishes commonplace passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and kindles fire.
- Humility is often only a feigned submission of which we make use to render others submissive. It is an artifice of pride which abases in order to exalt itself.
- Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue.
- Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye.
- Our virtues are most frequently but vices disguised.
- Philosophy triumphs easily over past and over future evils, but present evils triumph over philosophy.
Last reviewed 2026-07-06