Each man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice; for indeed it seems we have no other test of truth and reason than the example and pattern of the opinions and customs of the country we live in

We every day and every hour say things of another that we might more properly say of ourselves, could we but apply our observations to our own concerns.

Virtue shuns ease as a companion. It demands a rough and thorny path.

Nature clasps all her creatures in a universal embrace; there is not one of them which she has not plainly furnished with all means necessary to the conservation of its being.

Our great and glorious masterpiece is to live appropriately.

Even in the midst of compassion we feel within I know not what tart sweet titillation of malicious pleasure in seeing others suffer; children have the same feeling.

We have power over nothing except our will.