Stripped of the cunning artifices of the tailor, and standing forth in the garb of Eden – what a sorry set of round-shouldered, spindle-shanked, crane-necked varlets would civilized men appear!
It is upon record, that three centuries ago the tongue of the Right Whale was esteemed a great delicacy in France, and commanded large prices there.
The starred and stately nights seemed haughty dames in jewelled velvets, nursing at home in lonely pride, the memory of their absent conquering Earls, the golden helmeted suns!
Many sensible things banished from high life find an asylum among the mob.
I rejoice in my spine, as in the firm audacious staff of that flag which I fling half out to the world.
Where lies the final harbor, whence we unmoor no more?
Of all human events, perhaps, the publication of a first volume of verses is the most insignificant; but though a matter of no moment to the world, it is still of some concern to the author.
Courage is the most common and vulgar of the virtues.
Nothing can lift the heart of man like manhood in a fellow man.
There is no life in thee, now, except that rocking life imparted by a gently rolling ship; by her, borrowed from the sea; by the sea, from the inscrutable tides of God.
Hell is an idea first born on an undigested apple dumpling.
There seems no reason why patriotism and narrowness should go together, or why intellectual fairmindedness should be confounded with political trimming, or why serviceable truth should keep cloistered because not partisan.
Our souls belong to our bodies, not our bodies to our souls.
There never was a great man yet who spent all his life inland.
Better be secure under one king, than exposed to violence from twenty millions of monarchs, though oneself be one of them.
Only the man who says no is free.
Charity, like poetry, should be cultivated, if only for its being graceful.
True places are not found on maps.
Time is made up of various ages; and each thinks its own a novelty.
We cannot live for ourselves alone.