Great abilities are not requisite for an Historian; for in historical composition, all the greatest powers of the human mind are quiescent. He has facts ready to his hand; so there is no exercise of invention. Imagination is not required in any degree; only about as much as is used in the lowest kinds of poetry. Some penetration, accuracy, and coloring, will fit a man for the task, if he can give the application which is necessary.

To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity.

Though the wisdom or virtue of one can very rarely make many happy, the folly or vice of one man often make many miserable.

Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content.

He that would be superior to external influences must first become superior to his own passions.

If a man has a science to learn he must regularly and resolutely advance.

Among other pleasing errors of young minds is the opinion of their own importance. He that has not yet remarked, how little attention his contemporaries can spare from themselves, conceives all eyes turned upon himself, and imagines everyone that approaches him to be an enemy or a follower, an admirer or a spy.