Lessons of wisdom have the most power over us when they capture the heart through the groundwork of a story, which engages the passions.

• I once asked a hermit in Italy how he could venture to live alone, in a single cottage, on the top of a mountain, a mile from any habitation? He replied, that Providence was his next-door neighbor.
• Nothing is so perfectly amusing as a total change of ideas.
• So much of motion, is so much of life, and so much of joy, and to stand still, or get on but slowly, is death and the devil.
• Alas! if the principles of contentment are not within us, the height of station and worldly grandeur will as soon add a cubit to a man's stature as to his happiness.
• People who overly take care of their health are like misers. They hoard up a treasure which they never enjoy.
• People who are always taking care of their health are like misers, who are hoarding a treasure which they have never spirit enough to enjoy.
• The desire of knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it.
• I take a simple view of life. It is keep your eyes open and get on with it.
• Men tire themselves in pursuit of rest.
• Only the brave know how to forgive... a coward never forgave it is not in his nature.