When the whole world turns clown, and paints itself red with its own hearts blood instead of vermilion, it is something else than comic.

Though you may have known clever men who were indolent, you never knew a great man who was so; and when I hear a young man spoken of as giving promise of great genius, the first question I ask about him always is, Does he work?

The principle of all successful effort is to try to do not what is absolutely the best, but what is easily within our power, and suited for our temperament and condition.

Life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality.

He thinks by infection, catching an opinion like a cold.

Modern education has devoted itself to the teaching of impudence, and then we complain that we can no longer control our mobs.

There's no music in rest, but there's the making of music in it. And people are always missing that part of the life melody, always talking of perseverance and courage and fortitude; but patience is the finest and worthiest part of fortitude, and the rarest, too.