“What we want is a number of young people of talent and character who should resolve to make themselves thoroughly competent not to write, but to read.”

Giving attentive and cultivated reading priority over the ambition to become an author · Letter to a young sister, 12 January 1858

• Art
• Truth

“I came long since to the demonstrable conclusion, that a good letter is simply impossible.”

A wry reflection on the impossible demands of truly satisfactory correspondence · Letter to M., 1856

• Art
• Writing

“Moral courage is to the morale very much what physical courage is to the physique.”

Defining moral courage as a settled strength of character · Letter, On Moral Courage, 1861

• Courage
• Truth