“When a book raises your spirit, and inspires you with noble and manly ...” — Jean de la Bruyere Quote

When a book raises your spirit, and inspires you with noble and manly thoughts, seek for no other test of its excellence. It is good, and made by a good workman.

It is a sad thing when men have neither the wit to speak well nor the judgment to hold their tongues.

No man is so perfect, so necessary to his friends, as to give them no cause to miss him less.

We should keep silent about those in power; to speak well of them almost implies flattery; to speak ill of them while they are alive is dangerous, and when they are dead is cowardly.

A pious man is one who would be an atheist if the king were.

The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying.

I'm actually fighting my own benchmarks in a lot of ways. The number of games that I've managed to win for my country and for myself, the number of successes I've had and the excellence I've shown is always measured up in equal parlance when I travel away from the country, which is great.

We sometimes forget how fortunate we are - the excellence of our higher education system being a good example.

Excellence is a high performance over a long period of time. That's what I've tried to focus on.