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

The most insupportable of tyrants exclaim against the exercise of arbitrary power.

He that contemns a shrew to the degree of not descending to words with her does worse than beat her.

The blessings of fortune are the lowest; the next are the bodily advantages of strength and health; but the superlative blessings, in fine, are those of the mind.

Humor is the offspring of man; it comes forth like Minerva, fully armed from the brain.

Avarice is insatiable, and is always pushing on for more.

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.