A great mind is one that can forget or look beyond itself.

Conceit is vanity driven from all other shifts, and forced to appeal to itself for admiration.

We are all of us, more or less, the slaves of opinion.

So I have loitered my life away, reading books, looking at pictures, going to plays, hearing, thinking, writing on what pleased me best. I have wanted only one thing to make me happy, but wanting that have wanted everything.

The truth is, we pamper little griefs into great ones, and bear great ones as well as we can.

We are not satisfied to be right, unless we can prove others to be quite wrong.

A situation in a public office is secure, but laborious and mechanical, and without the great springs of life, hope and fear.