Ambition is an idol, on whose wings great minds are carried only to extreme; to be sublimely great or to be nothing.
How little do they see what is, who frame their hasty judgments upon that which seems.
I have told you of the Spaniard who always put on his spectacles when about to eat cherries, that they might look bigger and more attempting. In like manner I made the most of my enjoyment s: and through I do not cast my cares away, I pack them in as little compass as I can, and carry them as conveniently as I can for myself, and never let them annoy others.
If you would be pungent, be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams -- the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.
All deception in the course of life is indeed nothing else but a lie reduced to practice, and falsehood passing from words into things.
It is not for man to rest in absolute contentment. He is born to hopes and aspirations as the sparks fly upward, unless he has brutalized his nature and quenched the spirit of immortality which is his portion.
No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other's worth.
Not where I breathe, but where I love, I live; Not where I love, but where I am, I die.
What will not woman, gentle woman dare; when strong affection stirs her spirit up?
Order is the sanity of the mind, the health of the body, the peace of the city, the security of the state. Like beams in a house or bones to a body, so is order to all things.
Affliction is not sent in vain, young man, from that good God, who chastens whom he loves.
It is with words as with sunbeams -- the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.