Friendship Demands Attention.

Pride Measures Prosperity Not By Her Own Advantages But By The Disadvantages Of Others. She Would Not Even Wish To Be A Goddess Unless There Were Some Wretches Left Whom She Could Order About And Lord It Over, Whose Misery Would Make Her Happiness Seem All The More Extraordinary, Whose Poverty Can Be Tormented And Exacerbated By A Display Of Her Wealth. This Infernal Serpent, Pervading The Human Heart, Keeps Men From Reforming Their Lives, Holding Them Back Like A Suckfish.

Every Tribulation Which Ever Comes Our Way Either Is Sent To Be Medicinal, If We Will Take It As Such, Or May Become Medicinal, If We Will Make It Such, Or Is Better Than Medicinal, Unless We Forsake It.

. . . The State Of Things And The Dispositions Of Men Were Then Such, That A Man Could Not Well Tell Whom He Might Trust Or Whom He Might Fear.

If We Lived In A State Where Virtue Was Profitable, Common Sense Would Make Us Saintly. But Since We See That Avarice, Anger, Pride And Stupidity Commonly Profit Far Beyond Charity, Modesty, Justice And Thought, Perhaps We Must Stand Fast A Little, Even At The Risk Of Being Heroes.

One Man To Live In Pleasure And Wealth, Whiles All Other Weap And Smart For It, That Is The Part Not Of A King, But Of A Jailor.