The player envies only the player, the poet envies only the poet.

He who expects from a great name in politics, in philosophy, in art, equal greatness in other things, is little versed in human nature. Our strength lies in our weakness. The learned in books are ignorant of the world. He who is ignorant of books is often well acquainted with other things; for life is of the same length in the learned and unlearned; the mind cannot be idle; if it is not taken up with one thing, it attends to another through choice or necessity; and the degree of previous capacity in one class or another is a mere lottery.

Conceit is vanity driven from all other shifts, and forced to appeal to itself for admiration.

Even in the common affairs of life, in love, friendship, and marriage, how little security have we when we trust our happiness in the hands of others!

A life of action and danger moderates the dread of death.

We talk little when we do not talk about ourselves.

The greatest pleasure in life is that of reading while we are young. I have had as much of this pleasure perhaps as any one.