“Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves tomankind, which are delivered down from generation togeneration as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn”

“We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us.”

“To be exempt from the passions with which others are tormented, is the only pleasing solitude.”

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

“Jealousy is that pain which a man feels from the apprehension that he is not equally beloved by the person whom he entirely loves.”

“When I look upon the tombs of the great, every emotion of envy dies in me; when I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate desire goes out; when I meet with the grief of parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with compassion; when I see the tomb of the parents themselves, I consider the vanity of grieving for those whom we must quickly follow;”

“A misery is not to be measured from the nature of the evil, but from the temper of the sufferer.”