A short letter to a distant friend is, in my opinion, an insult like that of a slight bow or cursory salutation - a proof of unwillingness to do much, even where there is a necessity of doing something.

Worth seeing, yes; but not worth going to see.

That man is never happy for the present is so true, that all his relief from unhappiness is only forgetting himself for a little while. Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.

Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.

Bashfulness may sometimes exclude pleasure, but seldom opens any avenue to sorrow or remorse.

Every state of society is as luxurious as it can be. Men always take the best they can get.

Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.