Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 17.djvu/381

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VARIOUS SUBJECTS.
375

X.

To pardon those absurdites in ourselves, which we cannot suffer in others, is neither better nor worse than to be more willing to be fools ourselves, than to have others so.

XI.

A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser to day than he was yesterday.

XII.

Our passions are like convulsion fits, which, though they make us stronger for the time, leave us weaker ever after.

XIII.

To be angry, is to revenge the fault of others upon ourselves.

XIV.

A brave man thinks no one his superiour, who does him an injury; for he has it then in his power to make himself superiour to the other, by forgiving it.

XV.

To relieve the oppressed, is the most glorious act a man is capable of; it is in some measure doing the business of God and Providence.

XVI.

Superstition is the spleen of the soul.

B B 4
XVII. Atheists