Desultory reading is delightful, but to be beneficial, our reading must be carefully directed.

Some there are that torment themselves afresh with the memory of what is past; others, again, afflict themselves with the apprehension of evils to come; and very ridiculously both - for the one does not now concern us, and the other not yet ... One should count each day as a separate life.

He shows a greater mind who does not restrain his laughter, than he who does not deny his tears.

However wretched a fellow-mortal may be, he is still a member of our common species.

Happy he whoe'er, content with the common lot, with safe breeze hugs the shore, and, fearing to trust his skiff to the wider sea, with unambitious oar keeps close to the land.

Fortune dreads the brave, and is only terrible to the coward.

It is not how many books thou hast, but how good; careful reading profiteth, while that which is full of variety delighteth.