Under bad manners, as under graver faults, lies very commonly an overestimate of our special individuality, as distinguished from our generic humanity.

With all humility, I think, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." Infinitely more important than the vain attempt to love one's neighbor as one's self. If you want to hit a bird on the wing you must have all your will in focus, you must not be thinking about yourself, and equally, you must not be thinking about your neighbor; you must be living with your eye on that bird. Every achievement is a bird on the wing.

The mode by which the inevitable comes to pass is effort.

There is nothing like the dead cold hand of the past to take down our tumid egotism and lead us into the solemn flow of the life of our race.

A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.

Be willing to commit yourself to a course, perhaps a long and hard one, without being able to foresee exactly where you will come out.

For my part I think it is a less evil that some criminals should escape, than that the government should play an ignoble part.