The life of man is the true romance, which when it is valiantly conduced, will yield the imagination a higher joy than any fiction.
No man ever prayed heartily without learning something.
Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong.
Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit cannot be severed; for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end preexists in the means, the fruit in the seed.
Wisdom is like electricity. There is no permanently wise man, but men capable of wisdom, who, being put into certain company, or other favorable conditions, become wise for a short time, as glasses rubbed acquire electric power for a while.
The powers of the Soul are commensurate with its needs.
Thoughts come into our minds by avenues which we never left open, and thoughts go out of our minds through avenues which we never voluntarily opened.
As long as our civilization is essentially one of property, of fences, of exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions.
The way to mend the bad world is to create the right world.
All men are in some degree impressed by the face of the world; some men even to delight. This love of beauty is taste. Others have the same love in such success that, not content with admiring, they seek to embody it in new forms. The creation of beauty is art.
Every thought which genius and piety throw into the world alters the world.
If you would not be known to do anything, never do it.
A cynic can chill and dishearten with a single word.
Every mind must know the whole lesson for itself,-must go over the whole ground. What it does not see, what it does not live, it will not know.
We live amid surfaces, and the true art of life is to skate well on them.
By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world.
Invention breeds invention.
An individual has a healthy personality to the exact degree to which they have the propensity to look for the good in every situation.
In Nature, all is useful, all is beautiful.
Money is of no value; it cannot spend itself. All depends on the skill of the spender.