“Nobody, I think, ought to read poetry, or look at pictures or statues, who cannot find a great deal more in them than the poet or artist has actually expressed. Their highest merit is suggestiveness.”

Ugliness without tact is horrible.

Easy reading is damn hard writing.

The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may going to prove one’s self a fool.

Life is made up of marble and mud.

Sunlight is painting.

Nobody will use other people’s experience, nor have any of his own till it is too late to use it.

This world owes all its forward impulses to people ill at ease.

Let men tremble to win the hand of woman, unless they win along with it the utmost passion of her heart!

Every individual has a place to fill in the world and is important in some respect whether he chooses to be so or not.

A hero cannot be a hero unless in a heroic world.

When scattered clouds are resting on the bosoms of hills, it seems as if one might climb into the heavenly region, earth being so intermixed with sky, and gradually transformed into it.

Dream strange things and make them look like truth.

All brave men love; for he only is brave who has affections to fight for, whether in the daily battle of life, or in physical contests.

Happiness is not found in things you possess, but in what you have the courage to release.

Mankind are earthen jugs with spirits in them.

Just as there comes a warm sunbeam into every cottage window, so comes a lovebeam of God’s care and pity for every separate need.

The world is so full of people who are grabbing and self-seeking. So the rare individual who unselfishly tries to serve others has an enormous advantage. He has little competition.

To govern is always to choose among disadvantages.

Move only when you have an advantage. It’s very basic. You have to understand the odds and have the discipline to bet only when the odds are in your favor.

It’s easy to be taken advantage of if you’re not honest.

The accumulation of skill and science which has been directed to diminish the difficulty of producing manufactured goods, has not been beneficial to that country alone in which it is concentrated distant kingdoms have participated in its advantages.

The two big advantages I had at birth were to have been born wise and to have been born in poverty.

Successful people ask for the criticism of others and consider its merit.

It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.