What is well done, I feel as if I did; what is ill-done, I reck not of.

The most useful man in the most useful world, so long as only commodity was served, would remain unsatisfied. But, as fast as he sees beauty, life acquires a very high value.

Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.

Power is in nature the essential measure of right.

This book of Montaigne the world has endorsed by translating it into all tongues.

Thefts never enrich; alms never impoverish; murder will speak out of stone walls. The least admixture of a lie-for example, the taint of vanity, the least attempt to make a good impression, a favorable appearance-will instantly vitiate the effect.

Providence has a wild, rough, incalculable road to its end, and it is of no use to try to whitewash its huge, mixed instrumentalities, or to dress up that terrific benefactor in a clean shirt and white neckcloth of a student in divinity.