“Domestic happiness is the end of almost all our pursuits, and the common reward of all our pains. When men find themselves forever barred from this delightful fruition, they are lost to all industry, and grow careless of all their worldly affairs. Thus they become bad subjects, bad relations, bad friends, and bad men.”

Giving comfort under affliction requires that penetration into the human mind, joined to that experience which knows how to soothe, how to reason, and how to ridicule; taking the utmost care never to apply those arts improperly.

Make money your god, and it will plague you like the devil.

I am content; that is a blessing greater than riches; and he to whom that is given need ask no more.

Public schools are the nurseries of all vice and immorality.

When I mention religion I mean the Christian religion; and not only the Christian religion, but the Protestant religion; and not only the Protestant religion, but the Church of England.

The slander of some people is as great a recommendation as the praise of others.

It is not from nature, but from education and habits, that our wants are chiefly derived.

A lottery is a taxation on all of the fools in creation.

Money will say more in one moment than the most eloquent lover can in years.

There is no zeal blinder than that which is inspired with a love of justice against offenders.

Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea.

Human life very much resembles a game of chess: for, as in the latter, while a gamester is too attentive to secure himself very strongly on one side of the board, he is apt to leave an unguarded opening on the other, so doth it often happen in life.

Neither great poverty nor great riches will hear reason.

Riches without charity are nothing worth. They are a blessing only to him who makes them a blessing to others.

For I hope my Friends will pardon me, when I declare, I know none of them without a Fault; and I should be sorry if I could imagine, I had any Friend who could not see mine. Forgiveness, of this Kind, we give and demand in Turn.

Wine and youth are fire upon fire.

Nothing is so great an example of bad manners as flattery. If you flatter all the company, you please none; If you flatter only one or two, you offend the rest.

Things are sweeter when they’re lost. I know–because once I wanted something and got it. It was the only thing I ever wanted badly, Dot, and when I got it it turned to dust in my hand.

First, say to yourself, ‘I’m totally independent of the good or bad opinions of others.’ Second: ‘I’m beneath no one.’ Third: ‘I’m fearless in the face of any and all challenges.’

A bad song, the three best singers in the world cannot save it, and that’s the bottom line.

Radical transparency fosters goodness in so many ways for the same reasons that bad things are more likely to take place behind closed doors.

Take responsibility for your last bad decision, and then let it go. Don’t blame others or make excuses for yourself.

Your character defects are not where you’re bad, but where you’re wounded. But no matter who or what causes the wound, it’s yours now and you’re responsible for it.

To experience the good you have to have seen the bad; plus it makes you appreciate blessings more. Tough times taught me to be a fighter.