If I could do my life over, I would try to cleanse at least my pleasures of self-pity.
Literary tradition is full of lies about poverty-the jolly beggar, the poor but happy milkmaid, the wholesome diet of porridge, etc.
Expenditure now attracts fame as conquest once did.
Laughing at our friends, we avenge the disappointment they have caused.
I wish you joy of your unhappiness, since you cling to it so.
To postpone unpleasantness is human; to forget it is divine.