Moral habits, induced by public practices, are far quicker in making their way into men's private lives, than the failings and faults of individuals are in infecting the city at large.

Someone praising a man for his foolhardy bravery, Cato, the elder, said, ''There is a wide difference between true courage and a mere contempt of life.

It is not histories I am writing, but lives; and in the most glorious deeds there is not always an indication of virtue or vice, indeed a small thing like a phrase or a jest often makes a greater revelation of a character than battles where thousands die.

The measure of a man is the way he bears up under misfortune.

For the correct analogy for the mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.

Courage consists not in hazarding without fear; but being resolutely minded in a just cause.

To please the many is to displease the wise.