A man can be himself only so long as he is alone.

Friends and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune.

To become indignant at [people's] conduct is as foolish as to be angry with a stone because it rolls into your path. And with many people the wisest thing you can do, is to resolve to make use of those whom you cannot alter.

The tallest oak tree once was an acorn that any pig could have swallowed.

Great minds are related to the brief span of time during which they live as great buildings are to a little square in which they stand: you cannot see them in all their magnitude because you are standing too close to them.

Gaiety alone, as it were, is the hard cash of happiness; everything else is just a promissory note.

Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour.