The measure of any man's virtue is what he would do, if he had neither the laws nor public opinion, nor even his own prejudices, to control him.

A great chessplayer is not a great man, for he leaves the world as he found it.

Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.

The characteristic of Chaucer is intensity: of Spencer, remoteness: of Milton elevation and of Shakespeare everything.

Whatever interests is interesting.

There is an unseemly exposure of the mind, as well as of the body.

We are the creatures of imagination, passion, and self-will, more than of reason or even of self-interest. Even in the common transactions and daily intercourse of life, we are governed by whim, caprice, prejudice, or accident. The falling of a teacup puts us out of temper for the day; and a quarrel that commenced about the pattern of a gown may end only with our lives.