Some, it seems to me, elect their rulers for their crookedness. But I think that a straight stick makes the best cane, and an upright man the best ruler.

We perceive and are affected by changes too subtle to be described.

I am not afraid that I shall exaggerate the value and significance of life, but that I shall not be up to the occasion which it is.

But it is fit that the Past should be dark; though the darkness is not so much a quality of the past as of tradition. It is not adistance of time, but a distance of relation, which makes thus dusky its memorials. What is near to the heart of this generation is fair and bright still. Greece lies outspread fair and sunshiny in floods of light, for there is the sun and daylight in her literature and art. Homer does not allow us to forget that the sun shone,--nor Phidias, nor the Parthenon.

To speak impartially, the best men that I know are not serene, a world in themselves. For the most part, they dwell in forms, andflatter and study effect only more finely than the rest.

The rich man is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue.

It is remarkable how long men will believe in the bottomlessness of a pond without taking the trouble to sound it.