Many men have accomplished a great deal of good by striving to purify it.
Every account of political history from the inside will exhibit abundant evidence of wickedness, wrongdoing, and petty personal motives, of low ambitions, of bargains and sales, of timidity, of treachery.

The reverse of the most costly tapestry looks mean and cheap.

It is said that no man is a hero to his valet.
The reason is not that the hero is mean or base, but that the valet cannot see anything that is great and noble, but only what is mean and base.

The history of no people is heroical to its Mugwumps.

But, thank God, what is petty and personal is also temporary and perishable.