If it be true that a man is rich who wants nothing, a wise man is a very rich man.
Profound ignorance makes a man dogmatic. The man who knows nothing thinks he is teaching others what he has just learned himself; the man who knows a great deal can’t imagine that what he is saying is not common knowledge, and speaks more indifferently.
Most men spend the first half of their lives making the second half miserable.
I am not surprised that there are gambling houses, like so many snares laid for human avarice; like abysses where many a man’s money is engulfed and swallowed up without any hope of return; like frightful rocks against which the gamblers are thrown and perish.
There is no excess in the world so commendable as excessive gratitude.
It is more or less rude to scorn indiscriminately all kinds of praise; we ought to be proud of that which comes from honest men, who praise sincerely those things in us which are really commendable.
It is better to expose ourselves to ingratitude than to neglect our duty to the distressed.
Some people pretend they never were in love and never wrote poetry; two weaknesses which they dare not own – one of the heart, the other of the mind.
During the course of our life we now and then enjoy some pleasures so inviting, and have some encounters of so tender a nature, that though they are forbidden, it is but natural to wish that they were at least allowable. Nothing can be more delightful, except it be to abandon them for virtue’s sake.
Nothing is easier for passion than to overcome reason, but the greatest triumph is to conquer a man’s own interests.
A party spirit betrays the greatest men to act as meanly as the vulgar herd.
The fear of old age disturbs us, yet we are not certain of becoming old.
When we lavish our money we rob our heir; when we merely save it we rob ourselves.
There are some men who turn a deaf ear to reason and good advice, and willfully go wrong for fear of being controlled.
We should like those whom we love to receive all their happiness, or, if this were impossible, all their unhappiness from our hands.
Life is short, if we are only said to live when we enjoy ourselves; and if we were merely to count up the hours we spent agreeably, a great number of years would hardly make up a life of a few months.
Men regret their life has been ill-spent, but this does not always induce them to make a better use of the time they have yet to live.
There is nothing men are so anxious to keep, and yet are so careless about, as life.
A man must be completely wanting in intelligence if he does not show it when actuated by love, malice, or necessity.
A show of a certain amount of honesty is in any profession or business the surest way of growing rich.