A weak mind is like a microscope which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones.

Our actions seem to have their lucky and unlucky stars to which a great part of that blame and that commendation is due which is given to the actions themselves.

The great and important duty which is incumbent on Christians is to guard against all appearance of evil to watch against the first risings in the heart to evil and to have a guard upon our actions that they may not be sinful or so much as seem to be so.

The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.

Nothing is so contagious as example and we never do any great good or evil which does not produce its like.

The great city is that which has the greatest man or woman: if it be a few ragged huts it is still the greatest city in the whole world.

Passion for fame: A passion which is the instinct of all great souls.

No great idea in its beginning can ever be within the law. How can it be within the law? The law is stationary. The law is fixed. The law is a chariot wheel which binds us all regardless of conditions or place or time.

He had no failings which were not owing to a noble cause to an ardent generous perhaps an immoderate passion for fame a passion which is the instinct of all great souls.

The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great consequence to us and which touches us so profoundly that we must have lost all feeling to be indifferent about it.

Grown men can learn from very little children for the hearts of little children are pure. Therefore the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss.

Confidence is that feeling by which the mind embarks in great and honorable courses with a sure hope and trust in itself.

The paradox is really the pathos of intellectual life and just as only great souls are exposed to passions it is only the great thinker who is exposed to what I call paradoxes which are nothing else than grandiose thoughts in embryo.

What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition which overlooks a small interest in order to secure a great one.

A great city is that which has the greatest men and women.

No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance.

The heart is great which shows moderation in the midst of prosperity.

There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune it is a certain air which distinguishes us and seems to destine us for great things it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselves.

There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed to have despaired and have recovered hope.

Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together.

All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high one which sometimes seemed impossible.

The theoretical understanding of the world which is the aim of philosophy is not a matter of great practical importance to animals or to savages or even to most civilised men.

Life is made up not of great sacrifices or duties but of little things in which smiles and kindness and small obligations given habitually are what preserve the heart and secure comfort.

Youth is the period in which a man can be hopeless. The end of every episode is the end of the world. But the power of hoping through everything the knowledge that the soul survives its adventures that great inspiration comes to the middle-aged.