The heart is commonly reached, not through the reason, but through the imagination, by means of direct impressions, by the testimony of facts and events, by history, by description. Persons influence us, voices melt us, looks subdue us, deeds inflame us. Many a man will live and die upon a dogma; no man will be a martyr for a conclusion.

If then a practical end must be assigned to a University course, I say it is that of training good members of society... It is the education which gives a man a clear, conscious view of their own opinions and judgements, a truth in developing them, an eloquence in expressing them, and a force in urging them. It teaches him to see things as they are, to go right to the point, to disentangle a skein of thought to detect what is sophistical and to discard what is irrelevant.

Good is never accomplished except at the cost of those who do it, truth never breaks through except through the sacrifice of those who spread it.

I wonder what day I shall die on - one passes year by year over one's death day, as one might pass over one's grave.

I shall drink to the Pope, if you please, still, to conscience first, and to the Pope afterwards.

A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault.

Health of body and mind is a great blessing, if we can bear it.