An eager pursuit of fortune is inconsistent with a severe devotion to truth. The heart must grow tranquil before the thought can become searching.

Hunting is a relic of the barbarism that once thirsted for human blood, but is now content with the blood of animals.

The life even of a just man is a round of petty frauds; that of a knave a series of greater. We degrade life by our follies and vices, and then complain that the unhappiness which is only their accompaniment is inherent in the constitution of things.

Examples are few of men ruined by giving.

Fortune, like a coy mistress, loves to yield her favors, though she makes us wrest them from her.

Marriage, by making us more contented, causes us often to be less enterprising.

Every trait of beauty may be referred to some virtue, as to innocence, candor, generosity, modesty, or heroism. St. Pierre To cultivate the sense of the beautiful, is one of the most effectual ways of cultivating an appreciation of the divine goodness.