There is a tendency in things to right themselves, and the war or revolution or bankruptcy that shatters rotten system, allows things to take a new and natural order.

We know truth when we see it, from opinion, as we know when we are awake that we are awake.

When nature removes a great man, people explore the horizon for a successor; but none comes, and none will. His class is extinguished with him. In some other and quite different field, the next man will appear.

To help the young soul, to add energy, inspire hope, and blow the coals into a useful flame; to redeem defeat by new thought and firm action, this, though not easy, is the work of divine men.

The philosophy of waiting is sustained by all the oracles of the universe.

And, in fine, the ancient precept, "Know thyself," and the modern precept, "Study nature," become at last one maxim.

With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall.