History is the essence of innumerable biographies.

The courage we desire and prize is not the courage to die decently, but to live manfully.

A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men.

Woe to him that claims obedience when it is not due; woe to him that refuses when it is!

The condition of the most passionate enthusiast is to be preferred over the individual who, because of the fear of making a mistake, won't in the end affirm or deny anything.

What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books.

Our main business is not to see what lies dimly in the distance but to do what lies clearly at hand.

Men do less than they ought, unless they do all that they can.

Skepticism, as I said, is not intellectual only; it is moral also; a chronic atrophy and disease of the whole soul.

Do not be embarrassed by your mistakes. Nothing can teach us better than our understanding of them. This is one of the best ways of self education.

What we have done is the only mirror by which we can see what we are.

A man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder.

A good book is the purest essence of a human soul.

No man who has once heartily and wholly laughed can be altogether irreclaimably bad. ~ Historical Essays

No sadder proof can be given of a person's own tiny stature than their disbelief in great people. ~ On Heroes

Not what I have but what I do is my kingdom. ~ Sartor Resartus

See deep enough, and you see musically; the heart of Nature being everywhere music, if you can only reach it. ~ On Heroes

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