If mankind had wished for what is right, they might have had it long ago.

The slaves of power mind the cause they have to serve, because their own interest is concerned; but the friends of liberty always sacrifice their cause, which is only the cause of humanity, to their own spleen, vanity, and self-opinion.

The definition of genius is that it acts unconsciously; and those who have produced immortal works, have done so without knowing how or why. The greatest power operates unseen.

Some persons make promises for the pleasure of breaking them.

To be remembered after we are dead, is but poor recompense for being treated with contempt while we are living.

There are names written in her immortal scroll at which Fame blushes!

The love of fame is almost another name for the love of excellence; or it is the ambition to attain the highest excellence, sanctioned by the highest authority, that of time.

Fame is the inheritance not of the dead, but of the living. It is we who look back with lofty pride to the great names of antiquity.