The present time is seldom able to fill desire or imagination with immediate enjoyment, and we are forced to supply its deficiencies by recollection or anticipation.

Hope is necessary in every condition.

One cause, which is not always observed, of the insufficiency of riches, is that they very seldom make their owner rich.

No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.

It is wonderful what a difference learning makes upon people even in the common intercourse of life, which does not appear to be much connected with it.

It is wonderful to think how men of very large estates not only spend their yearly income, but are often actually in want of money. It is clear, they have not value for what they spend.

Every man is of importance to himself, and, therefore, in his own opinion, to others; and, supposing the world already acquainted with his pleasures and his pains, is perhaps the first to publish injuries or misfortunes which had never been known unless related by himself, and at which those that hear them will only laugh, for no man sympathises with the sorrows of vanity.