Magnificent promises are always to be suspected.

Be not familiar with the idea of wrong, for sin in fancy mothers many an ugly fact.

There never was a great truth but it was reverenced; never a great institution, nor a great man, that did not, sooner or later, receive the reverence of mankind.

No virtue fades out of mankind. Not over-hopeful by inborn temperament, cautious by long experience, I yet never despair of human virtue.

That which is called liberality is frequently nothing more than the vanity of giving.

I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight, I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.

The great man is to be the servant of mankind, not they of him.