Very few men acquire wealth in such a manner as to receive pleasure from it.

Anxiety in human life is what squeaking and grinding are in machinery that is not oiled. In life, trust is the oil.

Men are like trees: each one must put forth the leaf that is created in him.

No man can tell another his faults so as to benefit him, unless he loves him.

All human affairs follow nature's great analogue, the growth of vegetation. There are three periods of growth in every plant. The first, and slowest, is the invisible growth by the root; the second and much accelerated is the visible growth by the stem; but when root and stem have gathered their forces, there comes the third period, in which the plant quickly flashes into blossom and rushes into fruit.

Men have a thousand desires to a bushel of choices.

A man who cannot get angry is like a stream that cannot overflow, that is always turbid. Sometimes indignation is as good as a thunderstorm in summer, clearing and cooling the air.