To save the mind from preying inwardly upon itself, it must be encouraged to some outward pursuit. There is no other way to elude apathy, or escape discontent; none other to guard the temper from that quarrel with itself, which ultimately ends in quarreling with all mankind.

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!

to be sure, marriage is all in all with the ladies; but with us gentlemen it's quite another thing!

... it's vastly more irksome to give up one's own way, than to hear a few impertinent remarks.

To save the mind from preying inwardly upon itself, it must be encouraged to some outward pursuit.

Money is the source of the greatest vice, and that nation which is most rich, is most wicked.

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.