Men are generally idle, and ready to satisfy themselves, and intimidate the industry of others, by calling that impossible which is only difficult.

He who would govern his actions by the laws of virtue must regulate his thoughts by those of reason.

Great works are performed, not by strength, but by perseverance. Those that walk with vigor, three hours a day, will pass in seven years a space equal to the circumference of the globe.

Those authors are to be read at schools that supply most axioms of prudence.

The business of the biographer is often to pass slightly over those performances and incidents which produce vulgar greatness, to lead the thoughts into domestic privacies, and display the minute details of daily life, were exterior appendages are cast aside, and men excel each other only by prudence and virtue.

Those writers who lie on the watch for novelty can have little hope of greatness; for great things cannot have escaped former observation.

Language is only the instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas.