Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.

• Nature abhors a vacuum, and if I can only walk with sufficient carelessness I am sure to be filled.
• Man is the artificer of his own happiness.
• The language of friendship is not words but meanings.
• The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
• Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
• Goodness is the only investment that never fails.
• Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.
• Dwell as near as possible to the channel in which your life flows.
• I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.
• Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.