Those who are skilled in archery bend their bow only when they are preparing to use it; when they do not require it, they allow it to remain unbent, for otherwise it would remain unserviceable when the time for using it arrived. So it is with man. If he were to devote himself unceasingly to a dull round of business, without breaking the monotony by cheerful amusements, he would fall imperceptibly into idiocy, or be struck by paralysis

In peace children inter their parents, war violates the order of nature and causes parents to inter their children.

Envy is so natural to human kind, that it cannot but arise.

One man envies the success in life of another, and hates him in secret; nor is he willing to give him good advice when he is consulted, except it be by some wonderful effort of good feeling, and there are, alas, few such men in the world. A real friend, on the other hand, exults in his friend?s happiness, rejoices in all his joys, and is ready to afford him the best advice.

The secret of success is that it is not the absence of failure, but the absence of envy.

Good masters generally have bad slaves, and bad slaves have good masters.

The most hateful grief of all human griefs is to have knowledge of a truth, but no power over the event.