No man can produce great things who is not thoroughly sincere in dealing with himself, who would not exchange the finest show for the poorest reality, who does not so love his work that he is not only glad to give himself for it, but finds rather a gain than a sacrifice in the surrender.

He who is firmly seated in authority soon learns to think security, and not progress, the highest lesson in statecraft.

He gives us the very quintessence of perception,-the clearly crystalized precipitation of all that is most precious in the ferment of impression after the impertinent and obtrusive particulars have evaporated from the memory.

Blessed are they who have nothing to say and who cannot be persuaded to say it.

There is no work of genius which has not been the delight of mankind, no word of genius to which the human heart and soul have not sooner or later responded.

A poet must need be before his own age, to be even with posterity

It is by presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of man is tested.