A book in a man’s brain is better off than a book bound in calf – at any rate it is safer from criticism.
I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.
It is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation. He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great. Failure is the true test of greatness.
Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed.
A whale ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.
To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.
The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails whereon my soul is grooved to run.
The only true infidelity is for a live man to vote himself dead.
Failure is the true test of greatness.
Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.
The Past is the textbook of tyrants; the Future is the Bible of the Free.
Heaven have mercy on us all – Presbyterians and Pagans alike – for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending.
For whatever is truly wondrous and fearful in man, never yet was put into words or books.
Hope is the struggle of the soul, breaking loose from what is perishable, and attesting her eternity.
Ladies are like creeds; if you cannot speak well of them, say nothing.
Genius, all over the world, stands hand in hand, and one shock of recognition runs the whole circle round.
I try all things, I achieve what I can.
They talk of the dignity of work. The dignity is in leisure.
A noble craft, but somehow a most melancholy! All noble things are touched with that.
You know nothing till you know all; which is the reason we never know any thing.