Those who have nothing else to recommend them to the respect of others but only their blood, cry it up at a great rate, and have their mouth perpetually full of it. They swell and vapor, and you are sure to hear of their families and relations every third word.

He who receives a benefit should never forget it; he who bestows should never remember it.

The true science and study of mankind is man.

[Envy not for...] Whatever difference there may appear to be in men's fortunes, there is still a certain compensation of good and ill in all, that makes them equal.

God, Nature, the wise, the world, preach man, exhort him both by word and deed to the study of himself.

The most excellent and divine counsel, the best and most profitable advertisement of all others, but the least practised, is to study and learn how to know ourselves. This is the foundation of wisdom and the highway to whatever is good. . . . God, Nature, the wise, the world, preach man, exhort him both by word and deed to the study of himself.

Great towns are but a large sort of prison to the soul; like cages to birds, or pounds to beasts.