There surely is in human nature an inherent propensity to extract all the good out of all the evil.

The only legitimate artists in England are the architects.

Do your duty, and don't swerve from it. Do that which your conscience tells you to be right, and leave the consequences to God.

Genius is nothing more than common faculties refined to a greater intensity. There are no astonishing ways of doing astonishing things. All astonishing things are done by ordinary materials.

The great difficulty is first to win a reputation; the next to keep it while you live; and the next to preserve it after you die, when affection and interest are over, and nothing but sterling excellence can preserve your name. Never suffer youth to be an excuse for inadequacy, nor age and fame to be an excuse for indolence.

Some persons are so devotional they have not one bit of true religion in them.

If men would only take the chances of doing right because it is right, instead of the immediate certainty of the advantage of doing wrong, how much happier would their lives be.