Kindliness seems to exist primarily as an animal instinct, so deeply rooted that mental degeneracy, which works from the top down,does not destroy it until the mind sinks to the lower grades of idiocy.

By recognizing a favorable opinion of yourself, and taking pleasure in it, you in a measure give yourself and your peace of mind into the keeping of another, of whose attitude you can never be certain. You have a new source of doubt and apprehension.

Failure sometimes enlarges the spirit. You have to fall back upon humanity and God.

So far as discipline is concerned, freedom means not its absence but the use of higher and more rational forms as contrasted with those that are lower or less rational.

Prudence and compromise are necessary means, but every man should have an impudent end which he will not compromise.

To persuade is more trouble than to dominate, and the powerful seldom take this trouble if they can avoid it.

As social beings we live with our eyes upon our reflection, but have no assurance of the tranquillity of the waters in which we see it.