Skill to do comes of doing.

Real action is in silent moments.

Sport is the bloom and glow of a perfect health. The great will not condescend to take anything seriously; all must be as gay as the song of a canary, though it were the building of cities, or the eradication of old and foolish churches and nations, which have cumbered the earth long thousands of years.

There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep.

A great man scarcely knows how he dines, how he dresses; but without railing or precision, his living is natural and poetic.

Things are pretty, graceful, rich, elegant, handsome, but, until they speak to the imagination, not yet beautiful.

We pray to be conventional. But the wary Heaven takes care you shall not be, if there is anything good in you. Dante was very badcompany, and was never invited to dinner.