There is no private life which has not been determined by a wider public life.

Do we not all agree to call rapid thought and noble impulse by the name of inspiration?

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.

History repeats itself.

The world is full of hopeful analogies and handsome, dubious eggs, called possibilities.

If the past is not to bind us, where can duty lie? We should have no law but the inclination of the moment.

Don't let us rejoice in punishment, even when the hand of God alone inflicts it. The best of us are but poor wretches, just saved from shipwreck. Can we feel anything but awe and pity when we see a fellow-passenger swallowed by the waves?