Our thoughts are always elsewhere; we are stayed and supported by the hope for a better life, or by the hope that our children will turn out well, or that our name will be famous in the future, or that we shall escape the evils of this life, or that vengeance threatens those who are the cause of our death.

We find our energies are actually cramped when we are overanxious to succeed.

Tis well for old age that it is always accompanied with want of perception, ignorance, and a facility of being deceived. For should we see how we are used and would not acquiesce, what would become of us?

It is a rare life that remains orderly even in private.

Tortures are a dangerous invention, and seem to be a test of endurance rather than of truth.

It needs good management to enjoy life. I enjoy it twice as much as others, for the measure of enjoyment depends on the greater or less attention that we give to it...The shorter my possession of life the deeper and fuller I must make it.

Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul.