When typhus or cholera breaks out, they tell us that Nobody is to blame. That terrible Nobody! How much he has to answer for. More mischief is done by Nobody than by all the world besides.

The egotist is next door to a fanatic.

An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into reality; our desires being often but precursors of the things which we are capable of performing.

Practical wisdom is only to be learned in the school of experience. Precepts and instruction are useful so far as they go, but, without the discipline of real life, they remain of the nature of theory only.

Make good thy standing place, and move the world.

This extraordinary metal, the soul of every manufacture, and the mainspring perhaps of civilised society. Of iron.

Good character is property. It is the noblest of all possessions.