Only when it was too late did the husband realize that his fame was largely his wife's.

Then did the old man begin his pathetic pilgrimage to his wife's grave, where Froude often found him murmuring: "If I had only known! If I had only known!" For all his supreme gifts and rare talents were marred by harshness.

Intellectual brilliancy weighs light as punk against the gold of gentleness and character.
Half Carlyle's books, weighted by a gentle, noble spirit, would have availed more for social progress than these many volumes with the bad taste they leave in the mouth.

The sign of ripeness in an apple, a peach, is beauty, and the test of character is gentleness and kindness of heart.
One of the crying needs of society is a revival of gentleness and of a refined considerateness in judging others.

There is no disposition that cuts at the very root of character like harshness, and there is nothing that blights happiness and breeds discord like unlovingness and severity of judgment.