Gratitude is a duty none can be excused from, because it is always at our own disposal.

It is certainly much easier wholly to decline a passion than to keep it within just bounds and measures; and that which few can moderate almost anybody may prevent.

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

Riches should be admitted into our houses, but not into our hearts; we may take them into our possession, but not into our affections.

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.

The true science and study of mankind is man.

The advice of friends must be received with a judicious reserve; we must not give ourselves up to it and follow it blindly, whether right or wrong.