The peril of every fine faculty is the delight of playing with it for pride. Talent is commonly developed at the expense of character, and the greater it grows, the more is the mischief. Talent is mistaken for genius, a dogma or system for truth, ambition for greatness, ingenuity for poetry, sensuality for art.

All history is a record of the power of minorities, and of minorities of one.

Must we always talk for victory, and never once for truth, for comfort, and joy?

Every day, the sun; and, after sunset, night and her stars. Ever the winds blow; ever the grass grows. Every day, men and women, conversing, beholding and beholden. The scholar is he of all men whom this spectacle most engages. He must settle its value in his mind. What is nature to him?

The eyes of men converse as much as their tongues.

Truth is the summit of being; justice is the application of it to affairs.

Pure by impure is not seen.