The bread of bitterness is the food on which men grow to their fullest stature; the waters of bitterness are the debatable ford through which they reach the shores of wisdom; the ashes boldly grasped and eaten without faltering are the price that must be paid for the golden fruit of knowledge.

Emulation is active virtue; envy is brooding malice.

A just chastisement may benefit a man, though it seldom does; but an unjust one changes all his blood to gall.

The fire of true enthusiasm is like the fires of Baku, which no water can ever quench, and which burn steadily on from night to day, and year to year, because their well-spring is eternal.

In its permission to man to render subject to him all other living creatures of the earth, it continued the cruelty of the barbarian and the pagan, and endowed these with what appeared a divine authority.

Honor is an old-world thing; but it smells sweet to those in whose hand it is strong.

Why is youth so short and age so long?