Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
It is invidious to distinguish particular men as adventurers: we are all such.
Ambitious princes value inherited kingdoms not so much as conquered provinces.
The method of the enterprising is to plan with audacity and execute with vigor.
Marriage, by making us more contented, causes us often to be less enterprising.
What we call conscience in many instances, is only a wholesome fear of the law.
Truth, like the sun, submits to be obscured; but, like the sun, only for a time.
Honesty is not only "the first step toward greatness," - it is greatness itself.
To death we owe our life; the passing of one generation opens a way for another.
There is no tyrant like custom, and no freedom where its edicts are not resisted.
Common sense, alas in spite of our educational institutions, is a rare commodity.
We give our best affections to the beautiful, only our second best to the useful.
Love's sweetest meanings are unspoken; the full heart knows no rhetoric of words.
As threshing separates the wheat from the chaff, so does affliction purify virtue.
There will always be romance in the world so long as there are young hearts in it.
Fame - a few words upon a tombstone, and the truth of those not to be depended on.
Beauty can afford to laugh at distinctions: it is itself the greatest distinction.
There is a German proverb which says that Take-it-Easy and Live-Long are brothers.
Panic is a sudden desertion of us, and a going over to the enemy of our imagination.
Dreamers are half-way men of thought, and men of thought are half-way men of action.
Tears are nature's lotion for the eyes. The eyes see better for being washed by them.
The finest compliment that can be paid to a woman of sense is to address her as such.
The trouble with men of sense is that they are so dreadfully in earnest all the while.
The greatest events of an age are its best thoughts. Thought finds its way into action.
Love makes a few weeks so rich that all the rest of our lives seems poor in comparison.
No work deserves to be criticized that has not much in it that deserves to be applauded.
Besides the five senses, there is a sixth sense, of equal importance--the sense of duty.
It is seldom that we find out how great are our resources until we are thrown upon them.
The cure for tender sensibilities is to make more of our objects and less of our selves.
Tranquil pleasures last the longest; we are not fitted to bear the burden of great joys.
A failure establishes only this, that our determination to succeed was not strong enough.
They are the weakest, however strong, who have no faith in themselves or their own powers.
The light in the world comes principally from two sources,-the sun, and the student's lamp.
All men are alike in their lower natures; it is in their higher characters that they differ.
Music is the fourth great material want, first food, then clothes, then shelter, then music.
There are none so low but they have their triumphs. Small successes suffice for small souls.
It is of very little use in trying to be dignified, if dignity is no part of your character.
Earth took her shining station as a star, In Heaven's dark hall, high up the crowd of worlds.
Discretion is the salt, and fancy the sugar of life; the one preserves, the other sweetens it.
A sound discretion is not so much indicated by never making a mistake as by never repeating it.
The next best thing to being witty one's self, is to be able to be able to quote another's wit.
The best evidence of merit is a cordial recognition of it whenever and wherever it may be found.
To be without sympathy is to be alone in the world--without friends or country, home or kindred.
A peculiar work in any art must not be too hastily judged. New styles have to create new tastes.
Life being full of harsh realities, we seek relief from them in a variety of pleasing delusions.
It is with charity as with money--the more we stand in need of it, the less we have to give away.
Fortune, like a coy mistress, loves to yield her favors, though she makes us wrest them from her.
A great destiny needs a generous diet.... What can be expected of a people that live on macaroni!
It is not the number of facts he knows, but how much of a fact he is himself, that proves the man.
Great warriors, like great earthquakes, are principally remembered for the mischief they have done.
Weakness ineffectually seeks to disguise itself,--like a drunken man trying to show how sober he is.