Edith Wharton on success

There are two ways of spreading light⁠—to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.

No insect hangs its nest on threads as frail as those which will sustain the weight of human vanity.

Mrs. Ballinger is one of the ladies who pursue Culture in bands, as though it were dangerous to meet it alone.

I came, I saw, I conquered.

Julius Caesar100–44 BCInscription on the triumphal wagon reported in The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius, as translated by Robert Graves (1957).

For the want of a nail, the shoe was lost; for the want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for the want of a horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy, all for the want of care about a horseshoe nail.

Benjamin Franklin1706–1790Poor Richard’s Almanack

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.