The most charming view in the world is obtained by introspection.
Love is unlike chess, in that the pieces are moved secretly and the player sees most of the game. But the looker-on has one incomparable advantage: he is not the stake.
It is not for nothing that tigers choose to hide in the jungle, for commerce and trade are carried on, mostly, in the open.
We say that we love, not whom we will, but whom we must. Our judgment need not, therefore, go to confession.
Of two kinds of temporary insanity, one ends in suicide, the other in marriage.
If you give alms from compassion, why require the beneficiary to be "a deserving object?" No other adversity is so sharp as destitution of merit.
Bereavement is the name that selfishness gives to a particular privation.
O proud philanthropist, your hope is vain
To get by giving what you lost by gain.
With every gift you do but swell the cloud
Of witnesses against you, swift and loud—
Accomplices who turn and swear you split
Your life: half robber and half hypocrite.
You're least unsafe when most intact you hold
Your curst allotment of dishonest gold.
The highest and rarest form of contentment is approval of the success of another.
If Inclination challenge, stand and fight—
From Opportunity the wise take flight.