The universal human laws - need love for the beloved fear hunger periodic exaltation the kindness that rises up naturally in the absence of hunger/fear/pain - are constant predictable reliable universal and are merely ornamented with the details of local culture.

Though men are apt to flatter and exalt themselves with their great achievements yet these are in truth very often owing not so much to design as chance.

Whatever enlarges hope will also exalt courage.

Wishful thinking is not idealism. It is self-indulgence at best and self-exaltation at worst. In either case it is usually at the expense of others. In other words it is the opposite of idealism.

Accuracy is in every case advantageous to beauty and just reasoning to delicate sentiment. In vain would we exalt the one by depreciating the other.