17/09/2025
Reflection
The grace of being sincere is one of the most precious,
as is not succumbing to the violences of injustice nor to its flatteries, when it wants to compel us to tell a lie, or to betray our conscience.
Many purchased this grace at the price of their blood, and gave for it what in this world was most esteemed, not sparing to acquire it, and if you do not possess it, buy it at any cost. What you give for it is worth infinitely less than it. Do not fear death; fear living with the bad reputation of being a man without word, and less a lover of truth than of a mortal life, and of a miserable fortune: Veritatem eme.
Engrave in your heart the Maxim that a Wise Prince wrote with his fingers upon the lips of his son: First die rather than lie. Abhor the lie more than death; and although in civil conversations it may be called the most innocent of sins, and in Courts and Palaces the most necessary, call it everywhere the most shameful to nature, and the most unbearable to a man of honor and conscience.
Since in your Soul you carry engraved the image of honor and conscience.
