If individuality has no play, society does not advance; if individuality breaks out of all bounds, society perishes.

There is no sea more dangerous than the ocean of practical politics none in which there is more need of good pilotage and of a single, unfaltering purpose when the waves rise high.

And you very soon find out, if you have not found it out before, that patience and tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness.

Every living creature commences its existence under a form different from, and simpler than, that which it eventually attains.

It does not matter how many tumbles you have in this life, so long as you do not get dirty when you tumble; it is only the people who have to stop to be washed and made clean, who must necessarily lose the race. And I can assure you that there is the greatest practical benefit in making a few failures early in life. You learn that which is of inestimable importance

Only one absolute certainty is possible to man, namely that at any given moment the feeling which he has exists.

If a man cannot see a church, it is preposterous to take his opinion about its altar-piece or painted window.