Mortifications Are Often More Painful Than Real

Whatever Mitigates The Woes, Or Increases The Happiness Of Others, Is A Just Criterion Of Goodness; And Whatever Injures Society At Large, Or Any Individual In It, Is A Criterion Of Iniquity.

The Polite Of Every Country Seem To Have But One Character. A Gentleman Of Sweden Differs But Little, Except In Trifles, From One Of Any Other Country. It Is Among The Vulgar We Are To Find Those Distinctions Which Characterize A People.

Religion Does What Philosophy Could Never Do; It Shows The Equal Dealings Of Heaven To The Happy And The Unhappy, And Levels All Human Enjoyments To Nearly The Same Standard. It Gives To Both Rich And Poor The Same Happiness Hereafter, And Equal Hopes To Aspire After It.

Thus Love Is The Most Easy And Agreeable, And Gratitude The Most Humiliating, Affection Of The Mind. We Never Reflect On The Man We Love Without Exulting In Our Choice, While He Who Has Bound Us To Him By Benefits Alone Rises To Our Ideas As A Person To Whom We Have In Some Measure Forfeited Our Freedom.

The Youth Who Follows His Appetites Too Soon Seizes The Cup, Before It Has Received Its Best Ingredients, And By Anticipating His Pleasures, Robs The Remaining Parts Of Life Of Their Share, So That His Eagerness Only Produces Manhood Of Imbecility And An Age Of Pain.