To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live, according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically. Thoreau.
To be a poet is to have a soul in which knowledge passes instantaneously into feeling, and feeling flashes back as a new organ of knowledge. George Eliot.
To be able simply to say of a man he has character, is not only saying much of him, but extolling him; for this is a rarity which excites respect and wonder. Goethe.
To be able to be silent shows power; to be willing to be silent shows forbearance (Nachsicht); to be compelled to be silent shows the spirit of the time. Weber.
To be acquainted with the merit of a Ministry, we need only observe the condition of the people. Junius.
To be always lamenting and always complaining without raising and nerving one's self to resignation, is to lose at once both earth and heaven, and have nothing over but a watery sentimentalism. Schopenhauer.
To be always thinking about your manners is 5 not the way to make them good; because the very perfection of manners is not to think about yourself. Whately.
To be an enthusiast is to be the worthiest of affection, the noblest and the best that a mortal can be. Wieland.
To be angry is to avenge the faults of others upon ourselves. Pope.
To be as good as our fathers, we must be better. Imitation is not discipleship. When some one sent a cracked plate to China to have a set made, every piece in the new set had a crack in it. Wendell Phillips.