“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.”

Character is itself a fortune.

Persons with comparatively moderate powers will accomplish much, if they apply themselves wholly and indefatigably to one thing at a time.

Cheerfulness is also an excellent wearing quality. It has been called the bright weather of the heart.

The healthy spirit of self-help created among working people would, more than any other measure, serve to raise them as a class; and this, not by pulling down others, but by levelling them up to a higher and still advancing standard of religion, intelligence, and virtue.

Marriage like government is a series of compromises. One must give and take, repair and restrain, endure and be patient.

Conscience is that peculiar faculty of the soul which may be called the religious instinct.

Life is of little value unless it be consecrated by duty.

Experience serves to prove that the worth and strength of a state depend far less upon the form of its institutions than upon the character of its men; for the nation is only the aggregate of individual conditions, and civilization itself is but a question of personal, improvement.

Life will always be to a large extent what we ourselves make it.

Good character is property. It is the noblest of all possessions.

Man cannot aspire if he looked down; if he rise, he must look up.

Riches do not constitute any claim to distinction. It is only the vulgar who admire riches as riches.

Example teaches better than precept. It is the best modeler of the character of men and women. To set a lofty example is the richest bequest a man can leave behind him.

The highest culture is not obtained from the teacher when at school or college, so much as by our ever diligent self-education when we become men.

This extraordinary metal, the soul of every manufacture, and the mainspring perhaps of civilised society. Of iron.

Men must necessarily be the active agents of their own well-being and well-doing they themselves must in the very nature of things be their own best helpers.