Character

I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle

Debate is masculine, conversation is feminine

Our ideals are our better selves

You can only be as good as you dare to be bad.

The man, most man, works best for men: and, if most man indeed, he gets his manhood plainest from his soul

There are in every man, at every hour, two simultaneous postulations, one towards God, the other towards Satan

I am swimming in dishonor like a fish in water

The weak in courage is strong in cunning

Best be yourself, imperial, plain and true!

I am speaking now of the highest duty we owe our friends, the noblest, the most sacred - that of keeping their own nobleness, goodness, pure and incorrupt

Human nature is above all things lazy

Any mind that is capable of real sorrow is capable of good

What makes saintliness in my view, as distinguished from ordinary goodness, is a certain quality of magnanimity and greatness of soul that brings life within the circle of the heroic

Perhaps it is impossible for a person who does no good to do no harm

To be really great in little things, to be truly noble and heroic in the insipid details of everyday life, is a virtue so rare as to be worthy of canonization

When the fight begins within himself, a man's worth something

It is best to be yourself, imperial, plain and true

The only fault's with time; all men become good creatures: but so slow!

There's a woman like a dew-drop, she's so purer than the purest

It is fortunate to be of high birth, but it is no less so to be of such character that people do not care to know whether you are or are not.