Little other than a red tape Talking-machine, and unhappy Bag of Parliamentary Eloquence.

There can be no acting or doing of any kind till it be recognized that there is a thing to be done; the thing once recognized, doing in a thousand shapes becomes possible.

To the mean eye all things are trivial, as certainly as to the jaundiced they are yellow.

The eternal stars shine out again, so soon as it is dark enough.

Fame, we may understand, is no sure test of merit, but only a probability of such: it is an accident, not a property, of a man; like light, it can give little or nothing, but at most may show what is given.

Is not light grander than fire?

Not what you possess but what you do with what you have, determines your true worth.