Rare almost as great poets, rarer, perhaps, than veritable saints and martyrs; are consummate men of business. A man, to be excellent in this way, requires a great knowledge of character, with that exquisite tact which feels unerringly the right moment when to act. A discreet rapidity must pervade all the movements of his thought and action. He must be singularly free from vanity, and is generally found to be an enthusiast who has the art to conceal his enthusiasm.

Pride, if not the origin, is the medium of all wickedness-the atmosphere without which it would instantly die away.

Infinite toil would not enable you to sweep away a mist; but by ascending a little, you may often look over it altogether. So it is with our moral improvement: we wrestle fiercely with a vicious habit, which could have no hold upon us if we ascended into a higher moral atmosphere.

We are pleased with one who instantly assents to our opinions, but we love a proselyte.

There is hardly a more common error than that of taking the man who has one talent, for a genius.

Reading is sometimes an ingenious device for avoiding thought.

Selfishness, when it is punished by the world, is mostly punished because it is connected with egotism.