We must hold a man amenable to reason for the choice of his daily craft or profession. It is not an excuse any longer for his deeds that they are the custom of his trade. What business has he with an evil trade?

It is very hard to be simple enough to be good.

The craft of the merchant is this bringing a thing where it abounds to where it is costly.

I now require this of all pictures, that they domesticate me, not that they dazzle me. Pictures must not be too picturesque. Nothing astonishes men so much as common-sense and plain dealing. All great actions have been simple, and all great pictures are.

The populace drags down the gods to their own level.

Conversation is a game of circles.

There is always room for a man of force and he makes room for many. Society is a troop of thinkers and the best heads among them take the best places.