It is to be steadily inculcated, that virtue is the highest proof of understanding, and the only solid basis of greatness.

He was dull in a new way, and that made many think him great.

No one ever became great by imitation.

The superiority of some men is merely local. They are great because their associates are little.

The business of the biographer is often to pass slightly over those performances and incidents which produce vulgar greatness, to lead the thoughts into domestic privacies, and display the minute details of daily life, were exterior appendages are cast aside, and men excel each other only by prudence and virtue.