From the Commonplace Book

“Accuracy and diligence are much more necessary to a lawyer, than great comprehension of mind, or brilliancy of talent.  His business is to refine, define, and split hairs, to look into authorities, and compare cases.  A man can never gallop over the fields of law on Pegasus, nor fly across them on the wing of oratory.  If he would stand on terra firma he must descend; if he would be a great lawyer, he must first consent to be only a great drudge.”—Daniel Webster