To give vent now and then to his feelings, whether of pleasure or discontent, is a great ease to a man's heart.

Like other men, I have sought honours and preferment, and often have obtained them beyond my wishes or hopes. Yet never have I found in them that content which I had figured beforehand in my mind. A strong reason, if we well consider it, why we should disencumber ourselves of vain desires.

...be more guided by hope than fear.

Since there is nothing so well worth having as friends, never lose a chance to make them.

How much luckier than all the rest of mankind are the astrologers who, if they tell one truth among a hundred lies, obtain so much credit that even their lies are believed.

To relinquish a present good through apprehension of a future evil is in most instances unwise ... from a fear which may afterwards turn out groundless, you lost the good that lay within your grasp.

The return we reap from generous actions is not always evident.