Wise men put their trust in ideas and not in circumstances.

Envy is the tax which all distinction must pay.

This ennui, for which we Saxons had no name,--this word of France, has got a terrific significance. It shortens life, and bereaves the day of its light.

War educates the senses, calls into action the will, perfects the physical constitution, brings men into such swift and close collision in critical moments that man measures man.

I learn immediately from any speaker how much he has already lived, through the poverty or the splendor of his speech. Life lies behind us as the quarry from whence we get tiles and copestones for the masonry of today. This is the way to learn grammar. Colleges and books only copy the language which the field and the work-yard made.

Far off, men swell, bully, and threaten; bring them hand to hand, and they are feeble folk.

Life is a perpetual instruction in cause and effect.