Partiality in a parent is unlucky; for fondlings are in danger to be made fools.

Figure-flingers and star-gazers pretend to foretell the fortunes of kingdoms, and have no foresight in what concerns themselves.

Men indulge those opinions and practices that favor their pretensions.

All duties are matters of conscience, with this restriction that a superior obligation suspends the force of an inferior one.

By one delay after another they spin out their whole lives, till there's no more future left for them.

It is not the place, nor the condition, but the mind alone that can make anyone happy or miserable.

It is not the place, nor the condition, but the mind alone what it compares its situation to that can make anyone happy or miserable. Compare it to something better - result envy, frustration and sadness. Compare it to something worse - relief, gratitude and happiness.