“Against fortune the carter cracks his whip in vain.”

He who has not an adventure has not horse or mule, so says Solomon.–Who is too adventurous, said Echephron,–loses horse and mule.

A little rain beats down a big wind. Long drinking bouts break open the tunder.

Fate leads the willing, and th’ unwilling draws.

Don’t limp in front of the lame.

I build only living stones–men.

I am going to seek a grand perhaps.

Ignorance is the mother of all evils.

A child is not a vase to be filled, but a fire to be lit.

How can I govern others, who can’t even govern myself?

I drink eternally. For me it is an eternity of drinking, and a drinking up of eternity.

Giving words is an act of lovers.

Such is the nature and make-up of the French that they are only good at the start. Then they are worse than devils, but, given time, they’re less than women.

A certain jollity of mind, pickled in the scorn of fortune.

In their rules there was only one clause: Do what you will.

Can there be any greater dotage in the world than for one to guide and direct his courses by the sound of a bell, and not by his own judgment.

Strike the iron whilst it is hot.

One of the greatest of a great man’s qualities is success; ‘t is the result of all the others; ‘t is a latent power in him which compels the favor of the gods, and subjugates fortune.

Every man ought to be in love a few times in his life, and to have a smart attack of the fever. You are better for it when it is over: the better for your misfortune, if you endure it with a manly heart; how much the better for success, if you win it and a good wife into the bargain!

My fortune somewhat resembled that of a person who should entertain an idea of committing suicide, and, altogether beyond his hopes, meet with the good hap to be murdered.

And whichsoever way thou goest, may fortune follow.

It is vain to complain of fortune while we fail in policy and conduct.

There are good and bad times, but our mood changes more often than our fortune.

How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it.

The major fortunes in America have been made in land.