James Anthony Froude

“The essence of greatness is neglect of the self.”

“A person possessed with an idea cannot be reasoned with.”

“The better one is morally the less aware they are of their virtue.”

“We read the past by the light of the present, and the forms vary as the shadows fall, or as the point of vision alters.”

“Experience teaches slowly, and at the cost of mistakes.”

“Age does not make us childish, as some say; it finds us true children.”

“Science rests on reason and experiment, and can meet an opponent with calmness; but a belief is always sensitive.”

“No person is ever good for much, that hasn't been swept off their feet by enthusiasm between ages twenty and thirty.”

“You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.”

“The practical effect of a belief is the real test of its soundness.”

“The first duty of an historian is to be on guard against his own sympathies.”

“To deny the freedom of the will is to make morality impossible.”

“Human improvement is from within outward.”

“Fear is the parent of cruelty.”

“Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself.”

“In everyday things the law of sacrifice takes the form of positive duty.”

“Instruction does not prevent wasted time or mistakes; and mistakes themselves are often the best teachers of all.”

“We enter the world alone, we leave the world alone.”

“Superior strength is found in the long run to lie with those who had right on their side.”

“The secret of a person's nature lies in their religion and what they really believes about the world and their place in it.”