Men thin away to insignificance and oblivion quite as often by not making the most of good spirits when they have them as by lacking good spirits when they are indispensable. Gabriel lately, for the first time since his prostration by misfortune, had been independent in thought and vigorous in action to a marked extent-conditions which, powerless without an opportunity as an opportunity without them is barren, would have given him a sure lift upwards when the favourable conjunction should have occurred. But this incurable loitering beside Bathsheba Everdene stole his time ruinously. The spring tides were going by without floating him off, and the neap might soon come which could not.

Men of ill judgment oft ignore the good that lies within their hands, till they have lost it.

Men dissimulate their dearest, most constant, and most virtuous inclination from weakness and a fear of being condemned.

Men of ill judgement oft ignore the good That lies within their hands, till they have lost it.

Despair of all recovery spoils longevity,
And makes men’s miseries of alarming brevity.

All too often men with physical courage are disappointing in their moral imagination.

Most men remember obligations, but not often to be grateful; the proud are made sour by the remembrance, and the vain silent.

If men had all they wished, they would be often ruined.

When men lack a sense of awe, there will be disaster.

Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread.

Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men's minds vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like, but it would leave the minds of a number of men poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves?

Bold knaves thrive without one grain of sense,
But good men starve for want of impudence.

Men, like nails, lose their usefulness when they lose their direction and begin to bend: such nails are then thrown into the dust or into the furnace.

How miserable is the condition of men when the better a thing is, the further it recedes from our sight and the less it is recognized.