The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover.

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.

There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty.

A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.

What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.

True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.

A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

Suspicion is not less an enemy to virtue than to happiness; he that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly be corrupt.

A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes.

Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body.

No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.

A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants.

Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass.

Man is subject to innumerable pains and sorrows by the very condition of humanity, and yet, as if nature had not sown evils enough in life, we are continually adding grief to grief and aggravating the common calamity by our cruel treatment of one another.

The chief ingredients in the composition of those qualities that gain esteem and praise, are good nature, truth, good sense, and good breeding.

If we hope for what we are not likely to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a greater dream and shadow than it really is.

Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts; in a uniform manner.

I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair.

Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed.

Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.