There are many victories worse than a defeat. Our consciousness rarely registers the beginning of a growth within us any more than without us; there have been many circulations of the sap before we detect the smallest sign of the bud. It is never too late to be what you might have been. The strongest principle of growth lies in the human choice. Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds. Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us worthy evidence of the fact. It is only a poor sort of happiness that could ever come by caring very much about our own pleasures. We can only have the highest happiness such as goes along with being a great man, by having wide thoughts and much feeling for the rest of the world as well as ourselves. | 
