If we can still love those who have made us suffer, we love them all the more.

As what we call genius arises out of the disproportionate power and size of a certain faculty, so the great difficulty lies in harmonizing with it the rest of the character.

Social opinion is like a sharp knife. There are foolish people who regard it only with terror, and dare not touch or meddle with it. There are more foolish people, who, in rashness or defiance, seize it by the blade, and get cut and mangled for their pains. And there are wise people, who grasp it discreetly and boldly by the handle, and use it to carve out their own purposes.

All government, all exercise of power, no matter in what form, which is not based in love and directed by knowledge, is a tyranny.

He that seeks popularity in art closes the door on his own genius: as he must needs paint for other minds, and not for his own.

All my experience of the world teaches me that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the safe side and the just side of a question is the generous side and the merciful side.

Accuracy of language is one of the bulwarks of truth.