The essence of true nobility is neglect of self. Let the thought of self pass in, and the beauty of a great action is gone, like the bloom from a soiled flower.

We enter the world alone, we leave it alone.

That which especially distinguishes a high order of man from a low order of man, that which constitutes human goodness, human nobleness, is surely not the degree of enlightenment with which men pursue their own advantage; but it is self-forgetfulness; it is self-sacrifice; it is the disregard of personal pleasure, personal indulgence, personal advantage, remote or present, because some other line of conduct is more right.

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

A single seed of fact will produce in a season or two a harvest of calumnies; but sensible men will pay no attention to them.

You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.

There is always a part of our being into which those who are dearer to us far than our own lives are yet unable to enter.