The egotist is next door to a fanatic.
The women of the poorer classes make sacrifices, and run risks, and bear privations, and exercise patience and kindness to a degree that the world never knows of, and would scarcely believe even if it did know.
Woman, above all other educators, educates humanly. Man is the brain, but woman is the heart, of humanity.
Honorable industry always travels the same road with enjoyment and duty, and progress is altogether impossible without it.
Men cannot be raised in masses as the mountains were in he early geological states of the world. They must be dealt with as units; for it is only by the elevation of individuals that the elevation of the masses can be effectively secured.
Purposes, like eggs, unless they be hatched into action, will run into rottenness.
Like men, nations are purified and strengthened by trials.
Stothard learned the art of combining colors by closely studying butterflies wings; he would often say that no one knew what he owed to these tiny insects. A burnt stick and a barn door served Wilkie in lieu of pencil and canvas.
The truest politeness comes of sincerity.
He who labours not, cannot enjoy the reward of labour.
An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into reality; our desires being often but precursors of the things which we are capable of performing.
The apprenticeship of difficulty is one which the greatest of men have had to serve.
The government of a nation itself is usually found to be but the reflux of the individuals composing it. The government that is ahead of the people will be inevitably dragged down to their level, as the government that is behind them will in the long run be dragged up.
Energy enables a man to force his way through irksome drudgery and dry details and caries him onward and upward to every station in life.
The career of a great man remains an enduring monument of human energy. The man dies and disappears, but his thoughts and acts survive and leave an indelible stamp upon his race.
Marriage like government is a series of compromises. One must give and take, repair and restrain, endure and be patient.
Cecil’s dispatch of business was extraordinary, his maxim being, “The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once.”
Time is of no account with great thoughts. They are as fresh today as when they first passed through their author’s minds, ages ago.
Persons with comparatively moderate powers will accomplish much, if they apply themselves wholly and indefatigably to one thing at a time.
Even happiness itself may become habitual. There is a habit of looking at the bright side of things, and also of looking at the dark side.