Wood burns because it has the proper stuff in it; and a man becomes famous because he has the proper stuff in him.

In society every man is taken for what he gives himself out to be; but he must give himself out to be something. Better to be slightly disagreeable than altogether insignificant.

Upon the creatures we have made, we are, ourselves, at last, dependent.

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.

I am fully convinced that the soul is indestructible, and its activity will continue through eternity.

What is hardest of all? That which seems most simple: to see with your eyes what is before your eyes.

Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.