All our discontents about what we want appeared to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.

The best of men cannot suspend their fate: The good die early, and the bad die late.

The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond, and must be polished, or the luster of it will never appear.

As covetousness is the root of all evil, so poverty is the worst of all snares.

Nothing’s so partial as the laws of fate, Erecting blockheads to suppress the great. Sir Francis Drake the Spanish plate-fleet won; He had been a pirate if he had got none. Sir Walter Raleigh strove, but missed the plate, And therefore died a traitor to the State. Endeavour bears a value more or less, Just as ’tis recommended by success: The lucky coxcomb ev’ry man will prize, And prosp’rous actions always pass for wise.