“If you really want to judge the character of a man, look not at his great performances. Watch a man do his most common actions.”

“The coward is an object to be pitied.”

“Calm and silent and steady work, and no newspaper humbug, no name-making, you must always remember.”

“One link in a chain explains the infinite chain.”

“Compared to the coward that never made the attempt, he is a hero.”

“Our admiration of the antique is not admiration of the old, but of the natural.”

“Without the great arts which speak to the sense of beauty, a man seems to me a poor, naked, shivering creature. These are his becoming draperies, which warm and adorn him.”

“All men are in some degree impressed by the face of the world; some men even to delight. This love of beauty is taste. Others have the same love in such success that, not content with admiring, they seek to embody it in new forms. The creation of beauty is art.”