There are some defeats more triumphant than victories. - Michel de Montaigne

The most profound joy has more of gravity than of gaiety in it.

Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.

God might grant us riches, honours, life, and even health, to our own hurt; for every thing that is pleasing to us is not always good for us. If he sends us death, or an increase of sickness, instead of a cure, Vvrga tua et baculus, tuus ipsa me consolata sunt. "Thy rod and thy staff have comforted me," he does it by the rule of his providence, which better and more certainly discerns what is proper for us than we can do; and we ought to take it in good part, as coming from a wise and most friendly hand