As I know more of mankind, I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man, upon easier terms than I was formerly. - Samuel Johnson

A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.

As we crossed the Firth of Forth, our curiosity was attracted by Inch Keith, a small island, which neither of my companions had ever visited, though, lying within their view, it had all their lives solicited their notice. Here, by climbing with some difficulty over shattered crags, we made the first experiment of unfrequented coasts. Inch Keith is nothing more than a rock covered with a thin layer of earth, not wholly bare of grass, and very fertile of thistles. A small herd of cows grazes annually upon it in the summer. It seems never to have afforded to man or beast a permanent habitation.

Nothing ... will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome.