Let's plunge ourselves into the roar of time, the whirl of accident; may pain and pleasure, success and failure, shift as they will -- it's only action that can make a man.

Say what we may of the inadequacy of translation, yet the work is and will always be one of the weightiest and worthiest undertakings in the general concerns of the world.

Man supposes that he directs his life and governs his actions, when his existence is irretrievably under the control of destiny

A vain man can never be altogether rude. Desirous as he is of pleasing, he fashions his manners after those of others.

It is in vain that a man of sound mind and cool temper understands the condition of such a wretched being... He can no more communicate his own wisdom to him than a healthy man can instil his strength into the invalid by whose bedside he is seated.

Before you can do something, you must first be something.

The best benefit we derive from history is the enthusiasm it excites.