Pride, if not the origin, is the medium of all wickedness-the atmosphere without which it would instantly die away.

People resemble still more the time in which they live, than they resemble their fathers.

It is a weak thing to tell half your story, and then ask your friend's advice-a still weaker thing to take it.

Always win fools first. They talk much, and what they have once uttered they will stick to; whereas there is always time, up to the last moment, to bring before a wise man arguments that may entirely change his opinion.

Many know how to please, but know not when they have ceased to give pleasure.

Be cheerful [and grateful for the good that you have]: do not brood over fond hopes unrealized until a chain is fastened on each thought and wound around the heart. Nature intended you to be the fountain-spring of cheerfulness and social life, and not the mountain of despair and melancholy.

Those who never philosophized until they met with disappointments, have mostly become disappointed philosophers