What are some sentence examples using maxim?

Answer 1

I. Heroic Couplets from Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none

Go just alike, yet each believes his own.

Let such teach others who themselves excel,

And censure freely who have written well.

Nature to all things fixed the limits fit,

And wisely curbed proud man's pretending wit.

A little learning is a dangerous thing;

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.

True wit is nature to advantage dressed,

What oft was thought but ne'er so well expressed.

True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,

As those who move easiest who have learned to dance.

Avoid extremes; and shun the fault of such

Who still are pleased too little or too much.

Good nature and good sense must ever join;

To err is human, to forgive divine.

All seems infected that the infected spy,

As all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye.

Men must be taught as if you taught them not,

And things unknown proposed as things forgot.

--from an "Essay on Criticism" (1711)

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,

The proper study of Mankind is Man.

All are but parts of one stupendous whole,

Whose body Nature is, and God the soul.

And, spite of pride, in erring Reason's spite,

One truth is clear, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT.

II. Maxims of La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680)

(also see page 76 of our text)

1. Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.

2. We all of us have sufficient strength to bear the misfortunes of others.

3. It requires greater virtue to support good, than bad fortune.

4. If we had no faults ourselves, we should not take so much pleasure in remarking them in others.

5. Those who spend too much time on trifling things generally become incapable of great ones.

6. We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.

7. Truth does not so much good in the world as its appearances do evil.

8. Hypocrisy is the homage which vice renders to virtue.

9. Grace is to the body what good sense is to the mind.

10.. It is with true love as with ghosts. Everyone talks of it, but few have ever seen it.

11. Silence is the best course for any man to adopt who distrusts himself.

12. How can we expect another to keep our secret if we cannot keep it ourselves?

13. We should have very little pleasure if we did not sometimes flatter ourselves.

14. It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.

15. We seldom praise but to be praised.

16. The world more often rewards the appearance of merit than merit itself.

17. Our repentance is not so much regret for the evil we have done, as fear of its consequences to us.

18. A truly virtuous man is he who prides himself on nothing.

19. As we grow older, we become more foolish and more wise.

20. In the adversity of our best friends, we often find something which does not displease us.

21. It is a great ability to be able to conceal one's ability.

22. Narrowness of mind is the cause of stubbornness--we do not easily believe what is beyond our sight.

23. We like to judge others, but we do not like to be judged ourselves.

24. We always love those who admire us, ane we do not always love those whom we admire.

25. We often pardon those who weary us, but we cannot pardon those whom we weary.

26. Weak persons cannot be sincere.

27. We confess our little faults only to persuade others that we have no great ones.

28. When our hatred is too keen, it places us below those we hate.

29. We think very few people sensible except those who are of our opinion.

30. There are few people more often n the wrong than those who cannot endure to be so.

31. We are sometimes less unhappy in being deceived by those we love than in being undeceived by them.

32. The greatest gift of friendship is not to show our own faults, but to make him see his own.

33. We easily pardon in our friends those faults which do not concern ourselves.

34. Quarrels would not last long, if the fault was only on one side.

35. When we cannot find contentment in ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.

Answer 2

Since a maxim is a general truth or principle to live by, you could say: * He lived by the maxim, "Pride comes before a fall". * Those who live by the maxim "look before you leap" are less likely to find themselves in trouble.