I could have become a soldier if I had waited; I knew more about retreating than the man who invented retreating.

The self taught man seldom knows anything accurately, and he does not know a tenth as much as he could have known if he had worked under teachers, and besides, he brags, and is the means of fooling other thoughtless people into going and doing as he himself has done.

We all live in the protection of certain cowardices which we call our principles.

Kings cannot ennoble thee, thou good, great soul, for One who is higher than kings hath done that for thee; but a king can confirm thy nobility to men.

Astonishing things can be done with the human memory if you will devote it faithfully to one particular line of business.

Lord save us all from a hope tree that has lost the faculty of putting out blossoms.

What is the most rigorous law of our being? Growth. No smallest atom of our moral, mental, or physical structure can stand still a year. It grows - it must grow; nothing can prevent it.