Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content. No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of the spring: no man can, at the same time, fill his cup from the source and from the mouth of the Nile.

There ambush here relentless ruffians lay, And here the fell attorney prowls for prey.

Whoever envies another confesses his superiority.

It is astonishing that any man can forbear enquiring seriously whether there is a God; whether God is just; whether this life is the only state of existence.

Once a coxcomb, always a coxcomb.

Many need no other provocation to enmity than that they find themselves excelled.

But, perhaps, the flatterer is not often detected; for an honest mind is not apt to suspect, and no one exerts the power of discernment with much vigour when selflove favors the deceit.