I do not hesitate to say that the road to eminence and power, from an obscure condition, ought not to be made too easy, nor a thing too much of course. If rare merit be the rarest of all things, it ought to pass through some sort of probation. The temple of honor ought to be seated on an eminence. If it be open through virtue, let it be remembered, too, that virtue is never tried but by some difficulty and some struggle.

Great men are never sufficiently shown but in struggles.

Great men are the guideposts and landmarks in the state.

The great must submit to the dominion of prudence and of virtue, or none will long submit to the dominion of the great.