Tell me with whom you walk, and I will tell you who you are.

Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristics in men.

One can acquire everything in solitude—except character.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

If it is any use to know it, I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There is seven-eighths of it under water for every part that shows.

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that setbacks and griefs which endure help us in our march forward.

There are three great friends: an old wife, and old dog, and ready money.

Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who'll argue with you.

You cannot have a proud and chivalrous spirit if your conduct is mean and paltry; for whatever a man’s actions are, such must be his spirit.

You shall judge of a man by his foes as well as by his friends.

The charges we bring against others often come home to ourselves; we inveigh against our faults which are as much ours as theirs; and so our eloquence ends by tellings against ourselves.

Glass, china, and reputation are easily cracked, and never mended well.

These are the arks, the trophies, I erect, That fortify thy name against old age.