Every man, in judging of himself, is his own contemporary. He may feel the gale of popularity, but he cannot tell how long it will last. His opinion of himself wants distance, wants time, wants numbers, to set it off and confirm it.

The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are, the more leisure we have.

Anyone is to be pitied who has just sense enough to perceive his deficiencies.

To impress the idea of power on others, they must be made in some way to feel it.

The smallest pain in our little finger gives us more concern than the destruction of millions of our fellow beings.

The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure very much.

Any one may mouth out a passage with a theatrical cadence, or get upon stilts to tell his thoughts; but to write or speak with propriety and simplicity is a more difficult task. Thus it is easy to affect a pompous style, to use a word twice as big as the thing you want to express; it is not so easy to pitch upon the very word that exactly fits it.