There is no such test of a man's superiority of character as in the well-conducting of an unavoidable quarrel.

Prodigality is indeed the vice of a weak nature, as avarice is of a strong one; it comes of a weak craving for those blandishments of the world which are easily to be had for money, and which, when obtained, are as much worse than worthless as a harlot's love is worse than none.

Where there are large powers with little ambition... nature may be said to have fallen short of her purposes.

...and for that they were rich,/And robbed the poor; and for that they were strong,/And scourged the weak; and for that they made laws/Which turned the sweat of labor's brow to blood! - /For these their sins the nations cast them out.

Shy and unready men are great betrayers of secrets, for there are few wants more urgent for the moment than the want of something to say.

Wisdom is corrupted by ambition, even when the quality of the ambition is intellectual. For ambition, even of this quality, is but a form of self-love.

His foodWas glory, which was poison to his mindAnd peril to his body.