In this world no one rules by love; if you are but amiable, you are no hero; to be powerful, you must be strong, and to have dominion you must have a genius for organizing.

A great memory is never made synonymous with wisdom, any more than a dictionary would be called a treatise.

Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather that it shall ever have a beginning.

Let us take things as we find them: let us not attempt to distort them into what they are not... We cannot make facts. All our wishing cannot change them. We must use them.

Nothing would be done at all if one waited until one could do it so well that no one could find fault with it.

Nothing is more common than for men to think that because they are familiar with words they understand the ideas they stand for.

A great memory does not make a mind, any more than a dictionary is a piece of literature.

Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.

The love of our private friends is the only preparatory exercise for the love of all men.

To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.

From the age of fifteen, dogma has been the fundamental principle of my religion: I know no other religion; I cannot enter into the idea of any other sort of religion; religion, as a mere sentiment, is to me a dream and a mockery.

Virtue is its own reward, and brings with it the truest and highest pleasure; but if we cultivate it only for pleasure's sake, we are selfish, not religious, and will never gain the pleasure, because we can never have the virtue.

We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.

If we insist on being as sure as is conceivable... we must be content to creep along the ground, and never soar.

If we are intended for great ends, we are called to great hazards.

Evil has no substance of its own, but is only the defect, excess, perversion, or corruption of that which has substance.

There is such a thing as legitimate warfare: war has its laws; there are things which may fairly be done, and things which may not be done.

A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault.

Growth is the only evidence of life.

It is almost the definition of a gentleman to say that he is one who never inflicts pain.

Men will die upon dogma but will not fall victim to a conclusion.

In this world no one rules by love; if you are but amiable, you are no hero; to be powerful, you must be strong, and to have dominion you must have a genius for organizing.

Ability is sexless.

We must make up our minds to be ignorant of much, if we would know anything.

It is as absurd to argue men, as to torture them, into believing.

It is very difficult to get up resentment towards persons whom one has never seen.

Calculation never made a hero.

It is often said that second thoughts are best. So they are in matters of judgment but not in matters of conscience.

Let us act on what we have, since we have not what we wish.

To holy people the very name of Jesus is a name to feed upon, a name to transport. His name can raise the dead and transfigure and beautify the living.

It is almost a definition of a gentleman to say that he is one who never inflicts pain.

Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather that it shall never have a beginning.

To holy people the very name of Jesus is a name to feed upon a name to transport. His name can raise the dead and transfigure and beautify the living.

Lions would have fared better, had lions been the artists.

Literature stands related to Man as Science stands to Nature; it is his history.

It is mutual respect which makes friendship lasting.

By a garden is meant mystically a place of spiritual repose, stillness, peace, refreshment, delight.

Purity prepares the soul for love, and love confirms the soul in purity.

He did not lose his place in the minds of men because he was out of their sight.

There is in stillness oft a magic power to calm the breast, when struggling passions lower; touch'd by its influence, in the soul arise diviner feelings, kindred with the skies

A university educates the intellect to reason well in all matters, to reach out towards truth, and to grasp it.

Let schoolmasters puzzle their brain, With grammar, and nonsense, and learning, Good liquor, I stoutly maintain, Gives genius a better discerning.

Clinton's fakery was so deft and deeply ingrained that it was impossible to tell where it ended and the real Bill Clinton began. This constituted a kind of political genius.

Genius is not a possession of the limited few, but exists in some degree in everyone. Where there is natural growth, a full and free play of faculties, genius will manifest itself.

I make no claim to being a business genius. You can make so much money in this business that it loses its value.

Genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains.

Doorman - a genius who can open the door of your car with one hand, help you in with the other, and still have one left for the tip.

Doing easily what others find difficult is talent; doing what is impossible for talent is genius.

I am a genius. Then it amused me to keep saying so, but now it does not. I expected to be happy sometime. Now I know I shall never be.