Discontent is like ink poured into water, which fills the whole fountain full of blackness.

Gold is the fool's curtain, which hides all his defects from the world.

We pick our own sorrows out of the joys of other men, and from their sorrows likewise we derive our joys.

Praise has different effects, according to the mind it meets with; it makes a wise man modest, but a fool more arrogant, turning his weak brain giddy.

Negligence is the rust of the soul that corrodes through all her best resolves.

Fear, if it be not immoderate, puts a guard about us that does watch and defend us; but credulity keeps us naked, and lays us open to all the sly assaults of ill-intending men: it was a virtue when man was in his innocence; but since his fall, it abuses those that own it.

Knowledge is the treasure of the mind, but discretion is the key to it, without which it is useless. The practical part of wisdom is the best.