When A Secret Is Revealed, It Is

From Time To Time There Appear On The Face Of The Earth Men Of Rare And Consummate Excellence, Who Dazzle Us By Their Virtue, And Whose Outstanding Qualities Shed A Stupendous Light. Like Those Extraordinary Stars Of Whose Origins We Are Ignorant, And Of Whose Fate, Once They Have Vanished, We Know Even Less, Such Men Have Neither Forebears Nor Descendants: They Are The Whole Of Their Race.

How Many Men Are Like Trees, Already Strong And Full Grown, Which Are Transplanted Into Some Gardens, To The Astonishment Of Those People Who Behold Them In These Fine Spots, Where They Never Saw Them Grow, And Who Neither Know Their Beginning Nor Their Progress!

Modesty Is To Merit, What Shade Is To Figures In A Picture; It Gives It Strength And Makes It Stand Out.

The Events We Most Desire Do Not Happen; Or, If They Do, It Is Neither In The Time Nor In The Circumstances When They Would Have Given Us Extreme Pleasure.

Men Regret Their Life Has Been Ill-spent, But This Does Not Always Induce Them To Make A Better Use Of The Time They Have Yet To Live.