If the finest genius studies at one of our colleges, and is not installed in an office within one year afterwards in the cities or suburbs of Boston or New York, it seems to his friends and to himself that he is right in being disheartened, and in complaining the rest of his life. A sturdy lad from New Hampshire or Vermont, who in turn tries all the professions, who teams it, farms it, peddles, keeps a school, preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to Congress, buys a township, and so forth, in successive years, and always, like a cat, falls on his feet, is worth a hundred of these city dolls. He has not one chance, but a hundred chances. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him. No man yet knows what it is, nor can, till that person has exhibited it.
Every great man is a unique.
Do that which is assigned you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much. Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. For every thing that is given, something is taken. Society acquires new arts, and loses old instincts.