Contemporaries appreciate the person rather than their merit, posterity will regard the merit rather than the person.

Genius in one grand particular is like life. We know nothing of either but by their effects.

Extemporaneous and oral harangues will always have this advantage over those that are read from a in manuscript: every burst of eloquence or spark of genius they may contain, however studied they may have been beforehand, will appear to the audience to be the effect of the sudden inspiration of talent.

Theories are private property, but truth is common stock.

How small a portion of our life it is that we really enjoy! In youth we are looking forward to things that are to come; in old age we are looking backward to things that are gone past; in manhood, although we appear indeed to be more occupied in things that are present, yet even that is too often absorbed in vague determinations to be vastly happy on some future day when we have time.

The true measure of your character is what you do when nobody's watching.

Wars of opinion, as they have been the most destructive, are also the most disgraceful of conflicts.