The motives of the best ...

The motives of the best actions will not bear too strict an inquiry. It is allowed that the cause of most actions, good or bad, may be resolved into the love of ourselves; but the self-love of some men inclines them to please others, and the self-love of others is wholly employed in pleasing themselves. This makes the great distinction between virtue and vice.
The motives of the best actions will not bear too strict an inquiry. It is allowed that the cause of most actions, good or bad, may be resolved into the love of ourselves; but the self-love of some men inclines them to please others, and the self-love of others is wholly employed in pleasing themselves. This makes the great distinction between virtue and vice.
 Jonathan Swift

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Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought.
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Men are happy to be laughed at for their humor, but not for their folly.
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The two maxims of any great man at court are, always to keep his countenance, and never to keep his word.
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Men of great parts are often unfortunate in the management of public business, because they are apt to go out of the common road by the quickness of their imagination.
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Men who possess all the advantages of life are in a state where there are many accidents to disorder and discompose, but few to please them.
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 Jonathan Swift