They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life. Men's actions are too strong for them. Show me a man who has acted, and who has not been the victim and slave of his action.
Every hero becomes a bore at last.
There is a tendency for things to right themselves. It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself. But everybody is drugged with his own frenzy, and the pageant marches at all hours, with music and banner and badge. We boil at different degrees. Vigour is contagious, and whatever makes us either think or feel strongly ads to our power and enlarges our field of action.