There are certain things in which mediocrity is not to be endured, such as poetry, music, painting, public speaking.

Avoid making yourself the subject of conversation.

Duty is what goes most against the grain, because in doing that we do only what we are strictly obliged to, and are seldom much praised for it.

A guilty man is punished as an example for the mob; an innocent man convicted is the business of every honest citizen.

From time to time there appear on the face of the earth men of rare and consummate excellence, who dazzle us by their virtue, and whose outstanding qualities shed a stupendous light. Like those extraordinary stars of whose origins we are ignorant, and of whose fate, once they have vanished, we know even less, such men have neither forebears nor descendants: they are the whole of their race.

Manners carry the world for the moment, character for all time.

A woman is easily governed, if a man takes her in hand.