The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity.

Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.

Many a man is mad in certain instances, and goes through life without having it perceived. For example, a madness has seized a person of supposing himself obliged literally to pray continually; had the madness turned the opposite way, and the person thought it a crime ever to pray, it might not improbably have continued unobserved.

No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.

As long as one lives he will have need of repentance.

That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.

Do not ... hope wholly to reason away your troubles; do not feed them with attention, and they will die imperceptibly away. Fix your thoughts upon your business, fill your intervals with company, and sunshine will again break in upon your mind.