Begin and proceed on a settled and not-to-be-shaken conviction that but little is permitted to any man to do or to know, and if he complies with the first grand laws, he shall do well.

No matter how much faculty of idle seeing a man has, the step from knowing to doing is rarely taken.

The most active lives have so much routine as to preclude progress almost equally with the most inactive.

Every advantage has its tax.

Every calamity is a spur and valuable hint.

The eye is the painter and the ear the singer.

The affections cannot keep their youth any more than men.

The Yankee is one who, if he once gets his teeth set on a thing, all creation can't make him let go.

Always scorn appearances and you always may.

The brevity of human life gives a melancholy to the profession of the architect.