An infallible way to make your child miserable is to satisfy all his demands.

Custom is the great leveller. It corrects the inequality of fortune by lessening equally the pleasures of the prince and the pains of the peasant.

Parsimony is enough to make the master of the golden mines as poor as he that has nothing; for a man may be brought to a morsel of bread by parsimony as well as profusion.

Nothing so uncertain as general reputation. A man injures me from humor, passion, or interest; hates me because he has injured me; and speaks ill of me because he hates me.

If you should escape the censure of others, hope not to escape your own.

A great mind will neither give an affront nor bear it.

We part more easily with what we possess, than with our expectations of what we wish for; because expectation always goes beyond enjoyment.