These are all from the Introductory. I've started the actual story, but these are all from before the story.
"It is a good lesson--though it may often be a hard one--for a man who has dreamed of literary fame, and of making for himself a rank among the world's dignitaries by such means, to step aside out of the narrow circle in which his claims are recognized, and to find how utterly devoid of significance, beyond that circle, is all that he achieves, and all he aims at."
I think the above lesson would be good for anyone dreaming of fame and glory, not just writers.
And this next one reminded me of the nature of Postal work. Once you're in, the job is so secure that it can breed a lack of initiative and foster a dependence on the system. I guess this could be said of anyone who comes to depend on a government job of government help. In this case, it's being said about a person employed as a customs official.
"An effect--which I believe to be observable, more or less, in every individual who has occupied the position--is, that, while he leans on the mighty arm of the Republic, his own proper strength departs from him. He loses, in an extent proportioned to the weakness or force of his original nature, the capability of self-support. . . Why should he toil and moil, and be at so much trouble to pick himself up out of the mud, when, in a little while hence, the strong arm of his Uncle will raise and support him? Why should he work for his living here, or go to dig gold in California, when he is so soon to be made happy, at monthly intervals, with a little pile of glittering coin out of his Uncle's pocket?"
