Motives are better than actions. Men drift into crime. Of evil they do more than they contemplate, and of good they contemplate more than they do.

Tranquil pleasures last the longest; we are not fitted to bear the burden of great joys.

In politics, merit is rewarded by the possessor being raised, like a target, to a position to be fired at.

The cheerful live longest in years, and afterwards in our regards. Cheerfulness is the off-shoot of goodness.

Tears are nature's lotion for the eyes. The eyes see better for being washed by them.

Youth is too tumultuous for felicity; old age too insecure for happiness. The period most favorable to enjoyment, in a vigorous, fortunate, and generous life, is that between forty and sixty.

Poverty is only contemptible when it is felt to be so. Doubtless the best way to make our poverty respectable is to seem never to feel it as an evil.