Man makes circumstances, and spiritually as well as economically, is the artificer of his own fortune.

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.

A man's felicity consists not in the outward and visible blessing of fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.

Democracy means despair of finding any heroes to govern you, and contented putting up with the want of them.

This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle; wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it.

Originality is a thing we constantly clamour for, and constantly quarrel with.

The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows. The greatest of faults, I should say is to be conscious of none.