There can be no high civility without a deep morality, though it may not always call itself by that name.
The highest proof of civility is that the whole public action of the State is directed on securing the greatest good of the greatest number.
The civility of no race can be perfect whilst another race is degraded.
Every vice is only an exaggeration of a necessary and virtuous function.
If a man will kick a fact out of the window, when he comes back he finds it again in the chimney corner.
Perpetual modernism is the measure of merit in every work of art.
The True Artist has the planet for his pedestal; the adventurer, after years of strife, has nothing broader than his shoes.
A day for toil, an hour for sport, but for a friend is life too short.
By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote. In fact, it is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent.
Only an inventor knows how to borrow, and every man is or should be an inventor.
Magic and all that is ascribed to it is a deep presentiment of the powers of science.
Condense some daily experience into a glowing symbol and an audience is electrified.
In nature nothing can be given. All things are sold.
Nature has made up her mind that what cannot defend itself shall not be defended.
Nature is what you may do. There is much you may not do.
Nature: She pardons no mistakes. Her yea is yea, and her nay, nay.
Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it. Many will read the book before one thinks of quoting a passage. As soon as he has done this, that line will be quoted east and west.
Be a little careful about your library. Do you foresee what you will do with it? Very little to be sure. But the real question is what it will do with you? You will come here and get books that will open your eyes, and your ears, and your curiosity, and turn you inside out or outside in.
We are the prisoners of ideas.
Two may talk and one may hear, but three cannot take part in a conversation of the most sincere and searching sort.