High original genius is always ridiculed on its first appearance; most of all by those who have won themselves the highest reputation in working on the established lines. Genius only commands recognition when it has created the taste which is to appreciate it.

A person possessed with an idea cannot be reasoned with.

Morality, when vigorously alive, sees farther than intellect, and provides unconsciously for intellectual difficulties.

True greatness is the most ready to recognize and most willing to obey those simple outward laws which have been sanctioned by the experience of mankind.

If you think you can temper yourself into manliness by sitting here over your books, it is the very silliest fancy that ever tempted a young man to his ruin. You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.

The first duty of an historian is to be on his guard against his own sympathies...

Where nature is sovereign, there is no need of austerity and self-denial.