As for others whose lives are not so ordered, he reminds himself constantly of the characters they exhibit daily and nightly at home and abroad, and of the sort of society they frequent; and the approval of such men, who do not even stand well in their own eyes, has no value for him.

Consider how many do not even know your name, and how many will soon forget it, and how those who now praise you will presently blame you.

He that lives alone lives in danger; society avoids many dangers.

And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.

It is man's peculiar duty to love even those who wrong him.

Men despise one another and flatter one another; and men wish to raise themselves above one another, and crouch before one another.

The universal order and the personal order are nothing but different expressions and manifestations of a common underlying principle.