When we skim along the surface of history we see little but the rough barren rocks that rise out of it.

In a mist the heights can for the most part see each other; but the valleys cannot.

The ablest writer is only a gardener first, and then a cook: his tasks are, carefully to select and cultivate his strongest and most nutritive thoughts; and when they are ripe, to dress them, wholesomely, and yet so that they may have a relish.

A lawyer's brief will be brief, before a freethinker thinks freely.

If you wish a general to be beaten, send him a ream full of instructions; if you wish him to succeed, give him a destination, and bid him conquer.

Nature is mighty. Art is mighty. Artifice is weak. For nature is the work of a mightier power than man. Art is the work of man under the guidance and inspiration of a mightier power. Artifice is the work of mere man, in the imbecility of his mimic understanding.

When we skim along the surface of history we see little but the rough barren rocks that rise out of it.