He loves not who does not see the faults of the beloved as virtues.

All that is noble is in itself of a quiet nature, and appears to sleep until it is aroused and summoned forth by contrast.

The most original of authors are not so because they advance what is new, but more because they know how to say something, as if it had never been said before.

Courage and modesty are the most unequivocal of virtues, for they are of a kind that hypocrisy cannot imitate; they too have this quality in common, that they are expressed by the same color.

Cursed Mammon be, when he with treasures To restless action spurs our fate! Cursed when for soft, indulgent leisures, He lays for us the pillows straight.

However often we turn to it [the Koran] at first disgusting us each time afresh, it soon attracts, astounds, and in the end enforces our reverence. . . . Its style, in accordance with its contents and aim is stern, grand, terrible - ever and anon truly sublime - Thus this book will go on exercising through all ages a most potent influence.

That is the way of youth and life in general: that we do not understand the strategy until after the campaign is over.