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.

History is a voice forever sounding across the centuries the laws of right and wrong. Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.

Just laws are no restraint upon the freedom of the good, for the good man desires nothing which a just law will interfere with.

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.

Every one of us ... knows better than he practices, and recognizes a better law than he obeys.

Of all the evil spirits abroad at this hour in the world, insincerity is the most dangerous.