How many years must a man do nothing, before he can at all know what is to be done and how to do it!

A word spoken is a terrible thing when it suddenly utters what the heart has long allowed.

Pain and pleasure, good and evil, come to us from unexpected sources. It is not there where we have gathered up our brightest hopes, that the dawn of happiness breaks. It is not there where we have glanced our eye with affright, that we find the deadliest gloom. What should this teach us? To bow to the great and only Source of light, and live humbly and with confiding resignation.

No man learns to know his inmost nature by introspection, for he rates himself sometimes too low, and often too high, by his own measurement. Man knows himself only by comparing himself with other men; it is life that touches his genuine worth.

Never let a day pass without looking at some perfect work of art, hearing some great piece of music and reading, in part, some great book.

Reason can never be popular. Passions and feelings may become popular, but reason will always remain the sole property of a few eminent individuals.

The best pleasures of this world are not quite true.