Gold is worshipped in all climates, without a single temple, and by all classes, without a single hypocrite.

Men's arguments often prove nothing but their wishes.

There is this of good in real evils; they deliver us, while they last, from the petty despotism of all that were imaginary.

The victims of ennui paralyze all the grosser feelings by excess, and torpify all the finer by disuse and inactivity. Disgusted with this world, and indifferent about another, they at last lay violent hands upon themselves, and assume no small credit for the sang froid with which they meet death. But, alas! such beings can scarcely be said to die, for they have never truly lived.

Ambition makes the same mistake concerning power that avarice makes concerning wealth. She begins by accumulating power as a means to happiness, and she finishes by continuing to accumulate it as an end.

Self-denial is often the sacrifice of one sort of self-love for another.

No two things differ more than hurry and despatch. Hurry is the mark of a weak mind; despatch of a strong one.