We dare not trust our wit for making our house pleasant to our friend, so we buy ice cream.
Difficulties exist to be surmounted.
Nature paints the best part of a picture, carves the best parts of the statue, builds the best part of the house, and speaks the best part of the oration.
The civility of no race can be perfect whilst another race is degraded. It is a doctrine alike of the oldest and of the newest philosophy, that man is one, and that you cannot injure any member, without a sympathetic injury to all the members.
There are three wants which never can be satisfied: that of the rich, who wants something more; that of the sick, who wants something different; and that of the traveler, who says anywhere but here.
Let every man shovel out his own snow and the whole city will be passable.
Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.
Do you want to be a power in the world? Then be yourself. Be true to the highest within your soul and then allow yourself to be governed by no customs or conventionaliti es or arbitrary man-made rules that are not founded on principle.
There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening we shall hear the right word...
The sky is the ultimate art gallery just above us.
The State must follow, and not lead, the character and progress of the citizen.
We live by our imagination, our admirations, and our sentiments.
Men wish to be saved from the mischiefs of their vices, but not from their vices.
There are no fixtures in nature. The universe is fluid and volatile. Permanence is but a word of degrees.
As to methods, there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods.
I please myself with the graces of the winter scenery, and believe that we are as much touched by it as by the genial influences of summer.
Masses are rude, lame, unmade, pernicious in their demands and influence, and need not to be flattered, but to be schooled. I wish not to concede anything to them, but to tame, drill, divide, and break them up, and draw individuals out of them.
A strenuous soul hates cheap success. It is the ardor of the assailant that makes the vigor of the defendant.
It is true that the discerning intellect of the world is always much in advance of the creative, so that there are competent judges of the best book, and few writers of the best books.
It does not to dwell on dreams and forget to live, but it is equally foolish to ignore the past – never forget.