Men have a thousand desires to a bushel of choices.

The gravest events dawn with no more noise than the morning star makes in rising. All great developments complete themselves in the world and modestly wait in silence, praising themselves never, and announcing themselves not at all. We must be sensitive, and sensible, if we would see the beginnings and endings of great things. That is our part.

Rain! whose soft architectural hands have power to cut stones, and chisel to shapes of grandeur the very mountains.

There is not a heart but has its moments of longing, yearning for something better; nobler; holier than it knows now.

Success surely comes with conscience in the long run, other things being equal. Capacity and fidelity are commercially profitable qualities.

We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.

I would much rather fight pride than vanity, because pride has a stand-up way of fighting. You know where it is. It throws its black shadow on you, and you are not at a loss where to strike. But vanity is that delusive, that insectiferous, that multiplied feeling, and men that fight vanities are like men that fight midges and butterflies. It is easier to chase them than to hit them.