Every calamity is a spur and a valuable hint.

The trail of the serpent reaches into all the lucrative professions and practices of man. Each has its own wrongs. Each finds a tender and very intelligent conscience a disqualification for success. Each requires of the practitioner a certain shutting of the eyes, a certain dapperness and compliance, an acceptance of customs, a sequestration from the sentiments of generosity and love, a compromise of private opinion and lofty integrity.

The silence that accepts merit as the most natural thing in the world is the highest applause.

When you have worn out your shoes, the strength of the show fiber has passed into your body.

The cardinal virtue of a teacher [is] to protect the pupil from his own influence.

The divine gift is ever the instant life, which receives and uses and creates, and can well bury the old in the omnipotency with which Nature decomposes all her harvest for recomposition.

Every man supposes himself not to be fully understood or appreciated.