The human mind always makes progress, but it is a progress in spirals. Wit lies in recognising the resemblance among things which differ and the difference between things which are alike. Happiness is so composed of relative sensations, that it is not things in themselves, but their connections with yesterday and tomorrow, which affects the imagination. If destiny or the menaces of a tyrant have led a man to apprehend a certain degree of unhappiness, and he learns that he is to be spared the half of what he dreaded, his impressions will be very different from those he would have experienced, if he had not suffered so great a terror. Destiny has almost always much to do in the composition of our miseries.
Happiness consists in a destiny harmonizing with our faculties.