Everyone calls barbarity what he is not accustomed to.

To compose our character is our duty, not to compose books, and to win, not battles and provinces, but order and tranquillity in our conduct.

In order always to learn something from others (which is the finest school there can be), I observe in my travels this practice: I always steer those with whom I talk back to the things they know best.

Life itself is neither a good nor an evil: life is where good or evil find a place, depending on how you make it for them.

I consider myself an average man, except in the fact that I consider myself an average man.

The worth of the mind consisteth not in going high, but in marching orderly.

In his commerce with men I mean him to include- and that principally- those who live only in the memory of books. By means of history he will frequent those great souls of former years. If you want it to be so, history can be a waste of time; it can also be, if you want it to be so, a study bearing fruit beyond price.