Men seek to be great; they would have offices, wealth, power, and fame. They think that to be great is to possess one side of nature,--the sweet, without the other side,--the bitter.

A painter told me that nobody could draw a tree without in some sort becoming a tree; or draw a child by studying the outlines of its form merely but by watching for a time his motions and plays, the painter enters into his nature and can then draw him at every attitude.

I believe that our own experience instructs us that the secret of Education lies in respecting the pupil.

All history is but the lengthened shadow of a great man.

You will think me very pedantic, gentlemen, but holiday though it may be, I have not the smallest interest in any holiday, except as it celebrates real and not pretended joys.

Every man's nature is a sufficient advertisement to him of the character of his fellows.

I find that the Americans have no passions, they have appetites.