Men do less than they ought, unless they do all they can.

Good and bad men are each less so than they seem.

The fact is, very few men are right in everything.

The good particular men may do separately, in relieving the sick, is small, compared with what they may do collectively.

They say best men are molded out of faults,
And, for the most, become much more the better
For being a little bad

In our judgment of men, we are to beware of giving any great importance to occasional acts. By acts of occasional virtue weak men endeavour to redeem themselves in their own estimation, vain men to exalt themselves in that of mankind.

No one is good; no one is evil; everyone is both, in the same way and in different ways. …
It is so small a thing, the life of a man, and yet there is time to do great things, fragments of the common task.

It is the misfortune of men to want to do a thing well, even a thing they do not want to do at all.

You and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.

Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.

Death closes all: but something ere the end, Some work of noble note, may yet be done, Not unbecoming men that strove with gods.