It is indeed a mortifying reflection to those who are actuated by the love of fame, so justly denominated the last infirmity of noble minds, that the wisest legislator and most exalted genius that ever reformed or enlightened the world can never expect such tributes of praise as are lavished on the memory of pretended saints, whose whole conduct was probably to the last degree odious or contemptible, and whose industry was entirely directed to the pursuit of objects pernicious to mankind. It is only a conqueror, a personage no less entitled to our hatred, who can pretend to the attainment of equal renown and glory.

There are few sights sadder than a ruined book.

The thoroughly well-informed man — that is the modern ideal. And the mind of the thoroughly well-informed man is a dreadful thing. It is like a bric-a-brac shop, all monsters and dust, with everything priced above its proper value.

Conceit spoils the finest genius.

The most tragic thing in the world is a man of genius who is not a man of honor.

The noble-minded have nine states of mind: for eyes, bright; for ears, penetrating; for countenance; cordial; for demeanor, humble; for words, trustworthy; for service, reverent; for doubt, questioning; for anger circumspect; and for facing a chance to profit, moral.

It seems, in fact, that the more advanced a society is, the greater will be its interest in ruined things, for it will see in them a redemptively sobering reminder of the fragility of its own achievements. Ruins pose a direct challenge to our concern with power and rank, with bustle and fame. They puncture the inflated folly of our exhaustive and frenetic pursuit of wealth.

Beduin proverb that a deserted head showed an ungenerous mind:

A miserable spectacle of wrecked humanity, pitiable to others and intolerable to myself.

It's a wicked world, and when a clever man turns his brain to crime it is the worst of all.

It is deplorable...to remove all the romance - all the mystery!

It is the most deplorable tribute when the succession of an inferior ruler turns his predecessor, who was intolerable while he lived, into someone whose integrity and goodness are sadly missed.

Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable.

Men may seem detestable as joint stock-companies and nations; knaves, fools, and murderers there may be; men may have mean and meagre faces; but man, in the ideal, is so noble and so sparkling, such a grand and glowing creature, that over any ignominious blemish in him all his fellows should run to throw their costliest robes.