“It is more honorable to be raised to a throne than to be born to one. Fortune bestows the one, merit obtains the other.”

Man has not a greater enemy than himself.

What name to call thee by, O virgin fair, I know not, for thy looks are not of earth And more than mortal seems thy countenances.

I rejoiced in my progress, mourned my weaknesses, and commiserated the universal instability of human conduct.

Where you are is of no moment, but only what you are doing there. It is not the place that ennobles you, but you the place, and this only by doing that which is great and noble.

Man has no greater enemy than himself. I have acted contrary to my sentiments and inclination; throughout our whole lives we do what we never intended, and what we proposed to do, we leave undone.

Perhaps out there, somewhere, someone is sighing for your absence; and with this thought, my soul begins to breathe.

There is no lighter burden, nor more agreeable, than a pen.

Life in itself is short enough, but the physicians with their art, know to their amusement, how to make it still shorter.

I have friends whose society is delightful to me; they are persons of all countries and of all ages; distinguished in war, in council, and in letters; easy to live with, always at my command.

Love is the crowning grace of humanity, the holiest right of the soul, the golden link which binds us to duty and truth, the redeeming principle that chiefly reconciles the heart to life, and is prophetic of eternal good.

The greater I am, the greater shall be my efforts.

Love is the crowning grace of humanity.

The end of doubt is the beginning of repose.

My flowery and green age was passing away, and I feeling a chill in the fires had been wasting my heart, for I was drawing near the hillside above the grave.

Who naught suspects is easily deceived.

Books have led some to learning and others to madness.

All bad fortune is to be conquered by endurance.

Fortune favors the bold.

I was once a fortunate man but at some point fortune abandoned me.

Human misery must somewhere have a stop; there is no wind that always blows a storm; great good fortune comes to failure in the end.

A tendancy to melancholy – let it be observed, is a misfortune, not a fault.

Profits are better than wages. Wages make you a living; profits make you a fortune.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

Success, fame, and fortune, they’re all illusions. All there is that is real is the friendship that two can share.