To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.

• Old age is not a matter for sorrow. It is matter for thanks if we have left our work done behind us.
• It were a real increase of human happiness, could all young men from the age of nineteen be covered under barrels, or rendered otherwise invisible and there left to follow their lawful studies and callings, till they emerged, sadder and wiser, at the age of twenty-five.
• None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.
• Doubt, of whatever kind, can be ended by action alone.
• Work alone is noble.
• Secrecy is the element of all goodness even virtue, even beauty is mysterious.
• Clever men are good, but they are not the best.
• Blessed is he who has found his work let him ask no other blessedness.
• The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
• Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.