Courage is the most common and vulgar of the virtues.

A beautiful woman is born Queen of men and women both, as Mary Stuart was born Queen of Scots, whether men or women.

All round and round does the world lie as in a sharp-shooter's ambush, to pick off the beautiful illusions of youth, by the pitiless cracking rifles of the realities of age.

Forty years after a battle it is easy for a non-combatant to reason about how it ought to have been fought. It is another thing personally and under fire to direct the fighting while involved in the obscuring smoke of it.

Out of the trunk, the branches grow; out of them, the twigs. So, in productive subjects, grow the chapters.

Faith and philosophy are air, but events are brass.

Poor people make a very poor business of it when they try to seem rich.