It has been my fortune to love in general those men most who have thought most differently from me, on subjects wherein others pardon no discordance. I think I have no more right to be angry with a man, whose reason has followed up a process different from what mine has, and is satisfied with the result, than with one who has gone to Venice while I am at Siena, and who writes to me that he likes the place.

A great man knows the value of greatness; he dares not hazard it, he will not squander it.

Those who speak against the great do not usually speak from morality, but from envy.

Where power is absent we may find the robe of genius, but we miss the throne.

Great men lose somewhat of their greatness by being near us; ordinary men gain much.

Those who in living fill the smallest space, In death have often left the greatest void.

I strove with none; for none was worth my strife.