Let thy discontents be thy secrets; if the world knows them 'twill despise thee and increase them.

I think that humanity brings much misery on itself by the false value they put on things.

What is the use of a new-born child ?

A policy of life insurance is the cheapest and safest mode of making a certain provision for one's family.

We may perhaps learn to deprive large masses of their gravity and give them absolute levity, for the sake of easy transport.

In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.

Some are weatherwise, some are otherwise.