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

Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments; any enlargement of wishes is therefore equally destructive to happiness with the diminution of possession, and he that teaches another to long for what he never shall obtain is no less an enemy to his quiet than if he had robbed him of part of his patrimony

All the performances of human art, at which we look with praise or wonder, are instances of the resistless force of perseverance.

Madam, before you flatter a man so grossly to his face, you should consider whether or not your flattery is worth his having.

As to the rout that is made about people who are ruined by extravagance, it is no matter to the nation that some individuals suffer. When so much general productive exertion is the consequence of luxury, the nation does not care though there are debtors; nay, they would not care though their creditors were there too.

Enlarge my life with multitude of days, In health, in sickness, thus the suppliant prays; Hides from himself his state, and shuns to know, That life protracted is protracted woe. Time hovers o'er, impatient to destroy, And shuts up all the passages of joy.

All the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil show it evidently to be a great evil.