One cannot make men good by Act of Parliament.

No great work has ever been produced except after a long interval of still and musing meditation.

In my youth I hoped to do great things; now I shall be satisfied to get through without scandal.

What impresses men is not mind, but the result of mind.

I'm not the kind of writer who's able to block out the world around me. I'm mindful of our own haves and have-nots, how our culture often blames and punishes the have-nots. I worry about our precarious economic and political climate.

Nothing is more unpleasant than a virtuous person with a mean mind.

Conquest is the missionary of valor, and the hard impact of military virtues beats meanness out of the world.