_A Spendthrift._—He has not yet the poverty of the rich man who has counted all his treasure,—he squanders his spirit with the irrationalness of the spendthrift Nature.
_Hic niger est._—Usually he has no thoughts,—but in exceptional cases bad thoughts come to him.
_Beggars and Courtesy._—"One is not discourteous when one knocks at a door with a stone when the bell-pull is awanting"—so think all beggars and necessitous persons, but no one thinks they are in the right.
_Need._—Need is supposed to be the cause of things; but in truth it is often only the effect of the things themselves.
_During the Rain._—It rains, and I think of the poor people who now crowd together with their many cares, which they are unaccustomed to conceal; all of them, therefore, ready and anxious to give pain to one another, and thus provide themselves with a pitiable kind of comfort, even in bad weather. This, this only, is the poverty of the poor!
_The Envious Man._—That is an envious man—it is not desirable that he should have children; he would be envious of them, because he can no longer be a child.
_A Great Man!_—Because a person is "a great man," we are not authorised to infer that he is a man. Perhaps he is only a boy, or a chameleon of all ages, or a bewitched girl.
_A Mode of Asking for Reasons._—There is a mode of asking for our reasons which not only makes us forget our best reasons, but also arouses in us a spite and repugnance against reason generally:—a very stupefying mode of questioning, and properly an artifice of tyrannical men!
_Moderation in Diligence._—One must not be anxious to surpass the diligence of one's father—that would make one ill.
_Secret Enemies._—To be able to keep a secret enemy—that is a luxury which the morality even of the highest-minded persons can rarely afford.
_Not Letting oneself be Deluded._—His spirit has bad manners, it is hasty and always stutters with impatience; so that one would hardly suspect the deep breathing and the large chest of the soul in which it resides.
_The Way to Happiness._—A sage asked of a fool the way to happiness. The fool answered without delay, like one who had been asked the way to the next town: "Admire yourself, and live on the street!" "Hold," cried the sage, "you require too much; it suffices to admire oneself!" The fool replied: "But how can one constantly admire without constantly despising?"