Fidelity purchased with money, money can destroy.

The book-keeping of benefits is simple: it is all expenditure; if any one returns it, that is clear gain; if he does not return it, it is not lost, I gave it for the sake of giving.

The most miserable mortals are they that deliver themselves up to their palates, or to their lusts; the pleasure is short, and turns presently nauseous, and the end of it is either shame or repentance.

He who receives a benefit with gratitude, repays the first installment of it.

If sensuality were happiness, beasts were happier than men; but human felicity is lodged in the soul, not in the flesh.

Death is the wish of some, the relief of many, and the end of all. It sets the slave at liberty, carries the banished man home, and places all mortals on the same level, insomuch that life itself were a punishment without it.

Most people fancy themselves innocent of those crimes of which they cannot be convicted.