Any one may do a casual act of good-nature; but a continuation of them shows it a part of the temperament.

Religion which lays so many restraints upon us, is a troublesome companion to those who will lay no restraints upon themselves.

Only the brave know how to forgive... a coward never forgave; it is not in his nature.

A large volume of adventures may be grasped within this little span of life, by him who interests his heart in everything.

The desire of knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it.

When a poor disconsolated drooping creature is terrified from all enjoyment,--prays without ceasing 'till his imagination is heated,--fasts and mortifies and mopes, till his body is in as bad a plight as his mind; is it a wonder, that the mechanical disturbancesof an empty belly, interpreted by an empty head, should be mistook for [the] workings [of God].

Pain and pleasure, like light and darkness, succeed each other; and he that knows how to accommodate himself to their periodical returns, and can wisely extract the good from the evil, knows only how to live: this is true contentment, at least all that is to be had of it in this world; and for this every man must be indebted not to his fortune, but to himself.