This evil is no doubt greater and more common among the higher classes; but the lower are not exempt from it, since there is always some advantage in making men love us. Human life is thus only a perpetual illusion; men deceive and flatter each other. No one speaks of us in our presence as he does of us in our absence. Human society is founded on mutual deceit; few friendships would endure if each knew what his friend said of him in his absence, although he then spoke in sincerity and without passion.

Σημείο: Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] · ¶340
Άδεια: Public domain · Πηγή
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Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (WLC), CC BY 4.0

This evil is no doubt greater and more common among the higher classes… — Pensées