Our chief comforts often produce our greatest anxieties, and the increase in our possessions is but an inlet to new disquietudes.

Whatever be the motives which induce men to write,--whether avarice or fame,--the country becomes more wise and happy in which they most serve for instructors.

Hope is such a bait, it covers any hook.

Life has been compared to a race, but the allusion improves by observing, that the most swift are usually the least manageable and the most likely to stray from the course. Great abilities have always been less serviceable to the possessors than moderate ones.

Ceremonies are different in every country, but true politeness is everywhere the same.

I have known a German Prince with more titles than subjects, and a Spanish nobleman with more names than shirts.

Thou source of all my bliss and all my woe, That found'st me poor at first, and keep'st me so.