Thomas Carlyle

To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.

No sadder proof can be given by a man of his own littleness than disbelief in great men.

Men do less than they ought, unless they do all that they can.

There is a great discovery still to be made in literature, that of paying literary men by the quantity they do not write.