... we ought to be astonished at nothing; for what do we not meet with in our journey through life?

winter is past, and we have a prospect of spring that is superior to spring itself.

It is sometimes best to slip over thoughts and not go to the bottom of them.

good and evil travel on the same road, but they leave different impressions.

We are so fond of hearing ourselves spoken of, that, be it good or ill, it is still pleasing.

Gloom and sadness are poison to us, and the origin of hysterics. You are right in thinking that this disease is in the imagination; you have defined it perfectly; it is vexation which causes it to spring up, and fear that supports it.

The desire to be singular and to astonish by ways out of the common seems to me to be the source of many virtues.