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.

There is no act, however trivial, but has its train of consequences.

Commonplace though it may appear, this doing of one's duty embodies the highest ideal of life and character. There may be nothing heroic about it; but the common lot of men is not heroic.

We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.

It is possible that the scrupulously honest man may not grow rich so fast as the unscrupulous and dishonest one; but the success will be of a truer kind, earned without fraud or injustice. And even though a man should for a time be unsuccessful, still he must be honest: better lose all and save character. For character is itself a fortune. . . .

Men must necessarily be the active agents of their own well-being and well-doing they themselves must in the very nature of things be their own best helpers.