The destiny of any nation at any given time depends on the opinion of its young people, those under twenty-five.
Self-love exaggerates our faults as well as our virtues.
All truths are old, and all that we have to do is recognize and utter them anew.
There is no crime of which I do not deem myself capable.
The person of analytic or critical intellect finds something ridiculous in everything. The person of synthetic or constructive intellect, in almost nothing.
Strike the dog dead, it’s but a critic!
A life without love, without the presence of the beloved, is nothing but a mere magic-lantern show. We draw out slide after slide, swiftly tiring of each, and pushing it back to make haste for the next.
The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. Whatever you think you can do, or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, power and grace.
Come my little one, and give me your hand.
Energy will do anything that can be done in the world; and no talents, no circumstances, no opportunities will make a two-legged animal a man without it.
Sowing is not as difficult as reaping.
A great deal may be done by severity, more by love, but most by clear discernment and impartial justice.
If the world does improve on the whole, yet youth must always begin anew, and go through the stages of culture from the beginning.
He who does not expect a million readers should not write a line.
If the mass of people hesitate to act, strike with swiftly and with boldness, the brave heart that understands and seizes opportunity can everything.
All men would be masters of others, and no man is lord of himself.
Whatever Nature undertakes, she can only accomplish it in a sequence. She never makes a leap.
Nature is the living, visible garment of God.
Assuredly there is no more lovely worship of God than that for which no image is required, but which springs up in our breast spontaneously when nature speaks to the soul, and the soul speaks to nature face to face.
The spectacle of Nature is always new, for she is always renewing the spectators. Life is her most exquisite invention; and death is her expert contrivance to get plenty of life.