It is not designed that the road should be made too smooth for us here upon earth.

The best manner of avenging ourselves is by not resembling him who has injured us.

Happiness is not perfected until it is shared.

Be shocking, be daring, be bold, be passionate.

Imparting knowledge is only lighting other men's candles at our lamp without depriving ourselves of any flame.

Nobility, without virtue, is a fine setting without a gem

Self-love leads men of narrow minds to measure all mankind by their own capacity.

That grief is the most durable which flows inward, and buries its streams with its fountain, in the depths of the heart.

There is nothing so clear-sighted and sensible as a noble mind in a low estate.

Magnanimity is above circumstance; and any virtue which depends on that is more of constitution than of principle.

National antipathy is the basest, because the most illiberal and illiterate of all prejudices.

If you don't think the wheel should be reinvented then you are suffering from the lack of creative imagination.

Why is it so easy to abandon ourselves, and why do we so easily fall into the illusion that this self-abandonment is the only way people will like us?

The best revenge is living well.

Feminism is built on believing women's accounts of sexual use and abuse by men.

The Woodshed Orchestra trade in exuberance and might, a glistening thunderslap on the hind of musical atrophy. These songs leap from disc to lap, a many-legged beast trundling with joy and vision.

I don't really believe in vices. I love wine and cheese and chocolate, but they're what make life fun. They're a pleasure and an important part of living.

Emotional control is essential for attaining higher levels of mind. The thing that the teacher looks for in a student is the degree of self-control, not coldness that someone has.

At day's first light have in readiness, against disinclination to leave your bed, the thought that "I am rising for the work of man."

Do I prefer to grow up and relate to life directly, or do I choose to live and die in fear?

To be recognised by a whole country is incredible. This is massive.