Providence has fixed the limits of human enjoyment by immovable boundaries, and has set different gratifications at such a distance from each other, that no art or power can bring them together. This great law it is the business of every rational being to understand, that life may not pass away in an attempt to make contradictions consistent, to combine opposite qualities, and to unite things which the nature of their being must always keep asunder.

Life is but short; no time can be afforded but for the indulgence of real sorry, or contests upon questions seriously momentous. Let us not throw away any of our days upon useless resentment, or contend who shall hold out longest in stubborn malignity. It is best not to be angry; and best, in the next place, to be quickly reconciled.

The joy of life is variety; the tenderest love requires to be rekindled by intervals of absence.

We consider ourselves as defective in memory, either because we remember less than we desire, or less than we suppose others to remember.

Pride is a vice, which pride itself inclines every man to find in others, and to overlook in himself

The superiority of some men is merely local. They are great because their associates are little.

Nature makes us poor only when we want necessaries, but custom gives the name of poverty to the want of superfluities.