It passes in the world for greatness of mind, to be perpetually giving and loading people with bounties; but it is one thing to know how to give and another thing not to know how to keep. Give me a heart that is easy and open, but I will have no holes in it; let it be bountiful with judgment, but I will have nothing run out of it I know not how.

The mind is a matter over every kind of fortune; itself acts in both ways, being the cause of its own happiness and misery.

Straightforwardness and simplicity are in keeping with goodness. The things that are essential are acquired with little bother; it is the luxuries that call for toil and effort. To want simply what is enough nowadays suggests to people primitiveness and squalor.

Believe me, that was a happy age, before the days of architects, before the days of builders.

Why do I not seek some real good; one which I could feel, not one which I could display?

A great step toward independence is a good-humoured stomach.

That comes too late that comes for the asking.