To compose our character is our duty, not to compose books, and to win, not battles and provinces, but order and tranquillity in our conduct.

Not being able to govern events, I govern myself, and apply myself to them if they will not apply themselves to me.

If a man should importune me to give a reason why I loved him, I find it could no otherwise be expressed, than by making answer: because it was he, because it was I.

Habit is second nature.

Our own peculiar human condition is that we are as fit to be laughed at as able to laugh.

It is a small soul, buried beneath the weight of affairs, that does not know how to get clean away from them, that cannot put them aside and pick them up again.

All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.