Persian scholar Al-Ghazali feared for any country where morals were lagging behind brains.

The Revd Edmund Dixon urged young people to think about what a little politeness could do for them.

Frances Colenso admired the gallantry of the men who defended the fort at Rorke’s Drift, and the restraint of the men who attacked it.

Salesman Richard Cobden wondered why his employers left a full warehouse in his hands without any kind of security.

Travelling salesman Richard Cobden was still in his twenties when he bought a loss-making mill for a hundred times his annual salary.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wondered why New Yorkers elected to Congress the kind of man they would turn out of their own homes.