It is almost the definition of a gentleman to say that he is one who never inflicts pain

Nothing would be done at all if one waited until one could do it so well that no one could find fault with it.

A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault.

Bad men excuse their faults; good men abandon them

If we insist on being as sure as is conceivable... we must be content to creep along the ground, and never soar.

We mourn the blossoms of May because they are to wither; but we know that May is one day to have its revenge upon November, by the revolution of that solemn circle which never stops-- which teaches us in our height of hope, ever to be sober, and in our depths of desolation, never to despair.