In life, as in whist, hope nothing from the way cards may be dealt to you. Play the cards, whatever they be, to the best of your skill.

To be happy, you must learn to forget yourself.

Genius, the Pythian of the beautiful, leaves its large truths a riddle to the dull.

There is no society, however free and democratic, where wealth will not create an aristocracy.

Nothing but real love--(how rare it is; has one human heart in a million ever known it?) nothing but real love can repay us for the loss of freedom--the cares and fears of poverty--the cold pity of the world that we both despise and respect.

Strive, while improving your one talent, to enrich your whole capital as a man. It is in this way that you escape from the wretched narrow-mindedness which is the characteristic of every one who cultivates his specialty alone.

Punctuality is the stern virtue of men of business, and the graceful courtesy of princes.