Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.
...it will not always happen that the success of a poet is proportionate to his labor.
Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.
It is very common for us to desire most what we are least qualified to obtain.
Men become friends by a community of pleasures.
All envy is proportionate to desire; we are uneasy at the attainments of another, according as we think our own happiness would be advanced by the addition of that which he withholds from us.