Life, to be worthy of a rational being, must be always in progression; we must always purpose to do more or better than in time past.

A man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company

Since life itself is uncertain, nothing which has life for its basis can boast much stability.

To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.

Of those that spin out trifles and die without a memorial, many flatter themselves with high opinions of their own importance, and imagine that they are every day adding some improvement to human life.

There is no kind of idleness by which we are so easily seduced as that which dignifies itself by the appearance of business.

Vanity is so frequently the apparent motive of advice, that we, for the most part, summon our powers to oppose it without any very accurate inquiry whether it is right.