The evil which assails us is not in the localities we inhabit but in ourselves. We lack strength to endure the least task, being incapable of suffering pain, powerless to enjoy pleasure, impatient with everything. How many invoke death when, after having tried every sort of change, they find themselves reverting to the same sensations, unable to discover any new experience.

Do what you should, not what you may.

Drunkenness does not create vice; it merely brings it into view.

If you are surprised at the number of our maladies, count our cooks.

All I desire is, that my poverty may not be a burden to myself, or make me so to others; and that is the best state of fortune that is neither directly necessitous nor far from it. A mediocrity of fortune, with gentleness of mind, will preserve us from fear or envy; which is a desirable condition; for no man wants power to do mischief.

Poverty needs much, avarice everything.

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