We gain nothing by being with such as ourselves. We encourage one another in mediocrity. I am always longing to be with men more excellent than myself.

Why are we never quite at ease in the presence of a schoolmaster? Because we are conscious that he is not quite at his ease in ours. He is awkward, and out of place in the society of his equals. He comes like Gulliver from among his little people, and he cannot fit the stature of his understanding to yours.

You may derive thoughts from others; your way of thinking, the mould in which your thoughts are cast, must be your own.

No one ever regarded the first of January with indifference.

I am Retired Leisure. I am to be met with in trim gardens. I am already come to be known by my vacant face and careless gesture, perambulating at no fixed pace nor with any settled purpose. I walk about; not to and from.

Mother's love grows by giving.

Shall I ask the brave soldier who fights by my side In the cause of mankind, if our creeds agree?