The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty.

He that pursues fame with just claims, trusts his happiness to the winds; but he that endeavors after it by false merit, has to fear, not only the violence of the storm, but the leaks of his vessel.

The equity of Providence has balanced peculiar sufferings with peculiar enjoyments.

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

A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.

In youth, it is common to measure right and wrong by the opinion of the world, and in age, to act without any measure but interest, and to lose shame without substituting virtue.

The fortitude which has encountered no dangers, that prudence which has surmounted no difficulties, that integrity which has been attacked by no temptation, can at best be considered but as gold not yet brought to the test, of which therefore the true value cannot be assigned.