Pride is founded not on the sense of happiness, but on the sense of power.

The world loves to be amused by hollow professions, to be deceived by flattering appearances, to live in a state of hallucination; and can forgive everything but the plain, downright, simple, honest truth.

Our repugnance to death increases in proportion to our consciousness of having lived in vain.

We can bear to be deprived of everything but our self-conceit.

There are few things in which we deceive ourselves more than in the esteem we profess to entertain for our firends. It is little better than a piece of quackery. The truth is, we think of them as we please, that is, as they please or displease us.

Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.