Maxim in example sentence
Even if we allow him Julien's imagination, a young man brought up among the melancholy truths of Paris would have been aroused at this stage in his romance by the cold touch of irony; the mighty deeds would have vanished with the hope of performing them, to give place to the well-known maxim: 'When a man leaves his mistress, he runs the risk of being betrayed two or three times daily.'