Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions.

There is nothing earthly that lasts so well, as money. A man's learning dies with him, as does his virtues fade out of remembrance, but the dividends on the stocks he bequeaths to his children live and keep his memory green.

Every real thought on every real subject knocks the wind out of somebody or other.

A great man represents a great ganglion in the nerves of society, or to vary the figure, a strategic point in the campaign of history, and part of his greatness consists in his being there.

The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.

No generalization is wholly true—not even this one.

The riders in a race do not stop when they reach the goal. There is a little finishing canter before coming to a standstill. There is time to hear the kind voices of friends and say to oneself, The work is done.