The germs of all things are in every heart, and the greatest criminals as well as the greatest heroes are but different modes of ourselves.

Emancipation from error is the condition of real knowledge.

The mind must have for ballast the clear conception of duty, if it is not to fluctuate between levity and despair.

The history of man is essentially zoological; it becomes human late in the day, and then only in the beautiful souls, the souls alive to justice, goodness, enthusiasm, and devotion. The angel shows itself rarely and with difficulty through the highly-organized brute.

Learn to... be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not.

I wonder whether I should gain anything by the attempt to assume a character which is not mine. My wavering manner, born of doubt and scruple, has at least the advantage of rendering all the different shades of my thought, and of being sincere. If it were to become terse, affirmative, resolute, would it not be a mere imitation?

To do what is impossible for talent is the mark of genius.