Fine natures are like fine poems; a glance at the first two lines suffices for a guess into the beauty that waits you if you read on.

To the thinker, the most trifling external object often suggests ideas, which, like Homer's chain, extend, link after link, from earth to heaven.

There is no policy like politeness; and a good manner is the best thing in the world either to get a good name, or to supply the want of it.

O be very sure That no man will learn anything at all, Unless he first will learn humility.

There is a world of science necessary in choosing books. I have known some people in great sorrow fly to a novel, or the last light book in fashion. One might as well take a rose-draught for the plague! Light reading does not do when the heart is really heavy. I am told that Goethe, when he lost his son, took to study a science that was new to him. Ah! Goethe was a physician who knew what he was about.

Fate laughs at probabilities.

The desire of excellence is the necessary attribute of those who excel. We work little for a thing unless we wish for it.