Freedom is not being a slave to any circumstance, to any constraint, to any chance; it means compelling Fortune to enter the lists on equal terms.

No man ever became wise by chance.

We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right." "True happiness is ... to enjoy the present" "It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.

Conversation has a kind of charm about it, an insuating and insidious something that elicits secrets from us just like love or liquor.

Those whom true love has held, it will go on holding.

I will govern my life and thoughts as if the whole world were to see the one and read the other, for what does it signify to make anything a secret to my neighbor, when to God, who is the searcher of our hearts, all our privacies are open?

He who tenders doubtful safety to those in trouble refuses it.