[w]e All Lie Down In

Earthly Greatness Is A Nice Thing, And Requires So Much Chariness In The Managing, As The Contentment Of It Cannot Requite.

Garments That Have Once One Rent In Them Are Subject To Be Torn On Every Nail, And Glasses That Are Once Cracked Are Soon Broken; Such Is Man's Good Name Once Tainted With Just Reproach.

As The Most Generous Vine, If It Is Not Pruned, Runs Out Into Many Superfluous Stems, And Grows At Last Weak And Fruitless; So Dote The Best Man, If He Be Not Cut Short Of His Desires And Pruned With Afflictions. If It Be Painful To Bleed, It Is Worse To Wither. Let Me Be Pruned, That I May Grow, Rather Than Be Cut Up To Burn.

Try To Be Of Some Use To Others.

We Are Often Infinitely Mistaken, And Take The Falsest Measures, When We Envy The Happiness Of Rich And Great Men; We Know Not The Inward Canker That Eats Out All Their Joy And Delight, And Makes Them Really Much More Miserable Than Ourselves.