What a man is contributes much more to his happiness than what he has or how he is regarded by others.

It is a wise thing to be polite; consequently, it is a stupid thing to be rude. To make enemies by unnecessary and willful incivility, is just as insane a proceeding as to set your house on fire. For politeness is like a counter--an avowedly false coin, with which it is foolish to be stingy.

Man is never happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so.

Our life is a loan received from death with sleep as the daily interest on this loan.

Poverty and slavery are thus only two forms ofthe same thing, the essence of which is that a man's energies are expended for the most part not on his own behalf but on that of others.

Whatever folly men commit, be their shortcomings or their vices what they may, let us exercise forbearance; remember that when these faults appear in others it is our follies and vices that we behold.

It is only at the first encounter that a face makes its full impression on us.