A good solid bit of work lasts.

It is a common sentence that Knowledge is power; but who hath duly considered or set forth the power of Ignorance? Knowledge slowly builds up what Ignorance in an hour pulls down. Knowledge, through patient and frugal centuries, enlarges discovery and makes record of it; Ignorance, wanting its day's dinner, lights a fire with the record, and gives a flavour to its one roast with the burnt souls of many generations.

What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?

... indefinite visions of ambition are weak against the ease of doing what is habitual or beguilingly agreeable.

Vague memories hang about the mind like cobwebs.

All honour and reverence to the divine beauty of form! Let us cultivate it to the utmost in men, women and children -- in our gardens and in our houses. But let us love that other beauty too, which lies in no secret of proportion but in the secret of deep human sympathy.

There is no sorrow I have thought more about than that-to love what is great, and try to reach it, and yet to fail.