It is from this absolute indifference and tranquillity of the mind, that mathematical speculations derive some of the most considerable advantages; because there is nothing to interest the imagination; because the judgment sits free and unbiased to examine the point. All proportions, every arrangement of quantity, is alike to the understanding, because the same truths result to it from all; from greater from lesser, from equality and inequality.

It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere.

A jealous lover lights his torch from the firebrand of the fiend.

Frugality is founded on the principal that all riches have limits.

The person who grieves suffers his passion to grow upon him; he indulges it, he loves it; but this never happens in the case of actual pain, which no man ever willingly endured for any considerable time.

An entire life of solitude contradicts the purpose of our being, since death itself is scarcely an idea of more terror.

All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.