“If little labour, little are our gains:Man's fortunes are according to his pains.”

“...she knew in her heart that nature has a preference for a particular order: parents die, then children die. But it was a harsh design, offering little relief from pain, for being in accord with it means that the fortunate find themselves orphaned.”

“Accordingly, the one respect in which I depart from my younger self is that I now regard those people who have little or no story to tell themselves as terribly fortunate.”

“I see only a little, lady, but I know that your fortune is as twined with his as the ivy to the oak.”

“The greatest defect we have in our prayers and in all that happens to us, particularly in that which concerns tribulations, is our lack of confidence ... Faith is great or little according to the measure of our confidence.”

“Nevertheless, that our freewill may not be altogether extinguished, I think it may be true that fortune is the ruler of half our actions, but that she allows the other half or a little less to be governed by us.”