That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem.

He endearing elegance of female friendship.

I believe it will be found that those who marry late are best pleased with their children; and those who marry early, with their partners.

Of the present state, whatever it be, we feel and are forced to confess the misery; yet when the same state is again at a distance, imagination paints it as desirable.

Sir, I did not count your glasses of wine, why should you number up my cups of tea?

A minute analysis of life at once destroys that splendor which dazzles the imagination. Whatsoever grandeur can display, or luxury enjoy, is procured by offices of which the mind shrinks from the contemplation. All the delicacies of the table may be traced back to the shambles and the dunghill; all magnificence of building was hewn from the quarry, and all the pomp of ornament dug from among the damps and darkness of the mine.

At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.