Men are valued, not for what they are, but for what they seem to be.

A man who cannot win fame in big own age will have a very small chance of winning it from posterity. True, there are some half-dozen exceptions to this truth among millions of myriads that attest it; but what man of common sense would invest any large amount of hope in so unpromising a lottery?

Shame is like the weaver's thread; if it breaks in the net, it is wholly imperfect.

When a person is down in the world, an ounce of help is better than a pound of preaching.

Honest men are the gentlemen of nature.

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

Patience is the courage of the conqueror, the strength of man against destiny.