Among the lessons taught by the French revolution, there is none sadder or more striking than this--that you may make everything else out of the passions of men except a political system that will work, and that there is nothing so pitilessly and unconsciously cruel as sincerity formulated into dogma.

Great truths are portions of the soul of man; Great souls are portions of eternity.

Life may be given in many ways, and loyalty to truth be sealed as bravely in the closet as the field.

It is singular how impatient men are with overpraise of others, how patient of overpraise of themselves; and yet the one does them no injury, while the other may be their ruin.

Truth, after all, wears a different face to everybody, and it would be too tedious to wait till all were agreed.

It is the rooted instinct in men to admire what is better and more beautiful than themselves.

The idol is the measure of the worshipper.