“Self-control is only courage under another form. It may also be regarded as the primary essence of character.”

Stothard learned the art of combining colors by closely studying butterflies wings; he would often say that no one knew what he owed to these tiny insects. A burnt stick and a barn door served Wilkie in lieu of pencil and canvas.

Men whose acts are at variance with their words command no respect, and what they say has but little weight.

Even happiness itself may become habitual. There is a habit of looking at the bright side of things, and also of looking at the dark side.

Enthusiasm, the sustaining power of all great action.

Make good thy standing place, and move the world.

Opportunities fall in the way of every man who is resolved to take advantage of them.

There are many persons of whom it may be said that they have no other possession in the world but their character, and yet they stand as firmly upon it as any crowned king.

The great lesson of biography is to show what man can be and do at his best. A noble life put fairly on record acts like an inspiration to others.

He who never made a mistake, never made a discovery.

Success treads on the heels of every right effort; and though it is possible to overestimate success to the extent of almost deifying it, as is sometimes done, still in any worthy pursuit it is meritorious.

The great and good do no die even in this world. Embalmed in books, their spirits walk abroad. The book is a living voice. It is an intellect to which one still listens.

Luck lies in bed, and wishes the postman would bring him news of a legacy; labor turns out at six, and with busy pen or ringing hammer lays the foundation of a competence.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. But all play and no work makes him something worse.

Biographies of great, but especially of good men are most instructive and useful as helps, guides, and incentives to others. Some of the best are almost equivalent to gospels,–teaching high living ,high thinking, and energetic action, for their own and, the world’s good.

It is energy – the central element of which is will – that produces the miracle that is enthusiasm in all ages. Everywhere it is what is called force of character and the sustaining power of all great action.

It is the close observation of little things which is the secret of success in business, in art, in science, and in every pursuit of life.

On September 5, 1774, forty-five of the weightiest colonial men formed the First Continental Congress at Philadelphia.

Cut away all that is excessive, straighten all that is crooked, bring light to all that is overcast, labour to make all one glow of beauty and never cease chiselling your statue.

The ultimate purpose of religious life is to make this evolution move in a direction far more important to the destiny of the ego than the moral health of the social fabric which forms his present environment.

Certain of Poe’s tales possess an almost absolute perfection of artistic form which makes them veritable beacon-lights in the province of the short story.

The study of expression ought to form a part of the study of psychology, but it also comes within the province of anthropology because the habitual, life-long expressions of the face determine the wrinkles of old age, which are distinctly an anthropological characteristic.

Like a shipwreck or a jetty, almost anything that forms a structure in the ocean, whether it is natural or artificial over time, collects life.

To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.

Historically, the stuff of the universe goes on becoming concentrated into ever more organized forms of matter.