Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.
The extent of your consciousness is limited only by your ability to love and to embrace with your love the space around you, and all it contains.
All great events hang by a single thread. The clever man takes advantage of everything, neglects nothing that may give him some added opportunity; the less clever man, by neglecting one thing, sometimes misses everything.
The most difficult art is not in the choice of men, but in giving to the men chosen the highest service of which they are capable.
Lead the ideas of your time and they will accompany and support you; fall behind them and they drag you along with them; oppose them and they will overwhelm you.
It is a mistake, too, to say that the face is the mirror of the soul. The truth is, men are very hard to know, and yet, not to be deceived, we must judge them by their present actions, but for the present only.
Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet. Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.