Childhood is never troubled with foresight.

The laws of custom make our [returning a visit] necessary. O how I hate this vile custom which obliges us to make slaves of ourselves! to sell the most precious property we boast, our time;--and to sacrifice it to every prattling impertinent who chooses to demand it!

I love and honour [Paulus Aemilius, in Plutarch's Lives], for his fondness for his children, which instead of blushing at, he avows and glories in: and that at an age, when almost all the heros and great men thought that to make their children and family a secondary concern, was the first proof of their superiority and greatness of soul.

The mind is but too naturally prone to pleasure, but too easily yielded to dissipation

To despise riches, may, indeed, be philosophic, but to dispense them worthily, must surely be more beneficial to mankind.

Tis best to build no castles in the air.

To a heart formed for friendship and affection the charms of solitude are very short-lived.