... nobody does anything for nothing. ... it is the ordinary lot of people to have no friends if they themselves care for nobody. - William Makepeace Thackeray

it is the ordinary lot of people to have no friends if they themselves care for nobody

I knew all along that the prize I had set my life on was not worth the winning.

Be gentle with those who are less lucky, if not more deserving. Think, what right have you to be scornful, whose virtue is a deficiency of temptation, whose success may be a chance, whose rank may be an ancestor’s accident, whose prosperity is very likely a satire.

Time passes—Time the consoler—Time the anodyne—Time the grey calm satirist, whose sad smile seems to say, Look, O man, at the vanity of the objects you pursue, and of yourself who pursue them!