Counsels and maxims

"If my object in these pages were to present a complete scheme of counsels and maxims for the guidance of life, I should have to repeat the numerous rules-some of them excellent-which have been drawn up by thinkers of all ages, from Theognis and Solomondown to La Rochefoucauld; and, in so doing, I should inevitably entail upon the reader a vast amount of well-worn commonplace."