Never risk your reputation on a single shot, for if you miss the loss is irreparable.

There is no wilderness like a life without friends; friendship multiplies blessings and minimizes misfortunes; it is a unique remedy against adversity, and it soothes the soul.

Help others solve their problems; standing farther away, you can often see matters more clearly than they do. . . The greatest service you can render someone else is helping him or her help themselves.

Know how to keep anticipation alive: always strive to feed it, by letting the much promise more, and the one achievement be the announcement only of a greater. Put not all your reserves into the first throw; the great trick is to dole out strength, and to dole out mind, in such a fashion as to bring forward increasingly the fulfillment of what was expected of you.

If you are wise, live as you can; if you cannot, live as you would.

Nature often lets us down when we most need her; let us turn to art.

All victories breed, and that over your superior is foolish or fatal.