As the pearl ripens in the obscurity of its shell, so ripens in the tomb all the fame that is truly precious.
The wise become as the unwise in the enchanted chambers of Power, whose lamps make every face the same colour.
An ingenious mind feels in unmerited praise the bitterest reproof.
The sublime is contained in a grain of dust.
Greatness, as we daily see it, is unsociable.
Wherever there is excessive wealth, there is also in the train of it excessive poverty.