All rising to a great place is by a winding stair.

• persistence
• progress

It is a strange desire, to seek power and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man's self.

• power

Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable.

• habit
• service

Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt.

• mind
• character

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

• science
• faith
• doubt

Truth emerges much more readily from error than from confusion.

• science
• truth
• mistakes