POWER.
Power is no good quality by itself; it is the Power of doing good, alone, that is desirable to the wise. All vice is selfishness, and the meanest is that which is most contractedly selfish.
Great minds can reconcile sublimity to good-humour; in weak ones, it is generally coupled with severity and moroseness.
Sublime qualities men admire; they love the gentler virtues. When Wisdom would engage a heart, she wooes in a smile. What the austere man advises with his tongue his frown forbids.
The vulgar-rich call the poor the vulgar: let us learn to call things by their proper names; the rude and ungentle are the vulgar, whether, in fortune, they be poor or rich.
The truly poor and worthless are those who have not sense to perceive the superiority of internal merit to all foreign or outward accomplishments.