I have not skillFrom such a sharp and waspish word as "No"To pluck the sting.

Fear, indeed, is the mother of foresight.

He who gives only what he would as readily throw away, gives without generosity; for the essence of generosity is in self-sacrifice.

A secret may be sometimes best kept by keeping the secret of its being a secret. It is not many years since a State secret of the greatest importance was printed without being divulged, merely by sending it to the press like any other matter, and trusting to the mechanical habits of the persons employed. They printed it piecemeal in ignorance of what it was about.

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.

When you give, therefore, take to yourself no credit for generosity, unless you deny yourself something in order that you may give.

The world knows nothing of its greatest men.