One kind of happiness is to know exactly at what point to be miserable.

Happiness does not consist in things themselves but in the relish we have of them; and a man has attained it when he enjoys what he loves and desires himself, and not what other people think lovely and desirable.

Without humility, we keep all our defects; and they are only crusted over by pride, which conceals them from others, and often from ourselves.

Envy is more irreconcilable than hatred.

We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us.

Gratitude is like credit; it is the backbone of our relations; frequently we pay our debts not because equity demands that we should, but to facilitate future loans.

To be a great man it is necessary to know how to profit by the whole of our good fortune.