Grit is the grain of character. It may generally be described as heroism materialized,--spirit and will thrust into heart, brain, and backbone, so as to form part of the physical substance of the man.

Genius may be almost defined as the faculty of acquiring poverty.

Talent is full of thoughts, Genius is thought. Talent is a cistern, Genius a fountain.

Sydney Smith playfully says that common sense was invented by Socrates, that philosopher having been one of its most conspicuous exemplars in conducting the contest of practical sagacity against stupid prejudice and illusory beliefs.

In most old communities there is a common sense even in sensuality. Vice itself gets gradually digested into a system, is amenable to certain laws of conventional propriety and honor, has for its object simply the gratification of its appetites, and frowns with quite a conservative air on all new inventions, all untried experiments in iniquity.

The familiar writer is apt to be his own satirist. Out of his own mouth is he judged.

A politician weakly and amiably in the right, is no match for a politician tenaciously and pugnaciously in the wrong.