A man finds room in the few square inches of the face for the traits of all his ancestors; for the expression of all his history, and his wants.
If we live truly, we shall see truly.
Everything in the universe goes by indirection. There are no straight lines.
What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness.
Sleep lingers all our lifetime about our eyes, as night hovers all day in the boughs of the fir-tree.
Poverty consist in feeling poor.
The heroic soul does not sell its justice and its nobleness.
One of the illusions of life is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive one.
Every man is an impossibility until he is born.
A man is like a bit of Labrador spar, which has no luster as you turn it in your hand, until you come to a particular angle; then it shows deep and beautiful colors.
Our fear of death is like our fear that summer will be short, but when we have had our swing of pleasure, our fill of fruit, and our swelter of heat, we say we have had our day.
My evening visitors, if they cannot see the clock should find the time in my face.
There is no strong performance without a little fanaticism in the performer.
The quality of the imagination is to flow and not to freeze.
Friendship requires more time than poor busy men can usually command.
Friendship should be surrounded with ceremonies and respects, and not crushed into corners.
Language is the archives of history.
The man is only half himself, the other half is his expression.
The good lawyer is not the man who has an eye to every side and angle of contingency, and qualifies all his qualifications, but who throws himself on your part so heartily, that he can get you out of a scrape.
We do not live an equal life, but one of contrasts and patchwork; now a little joy, then a sorrow, now a sin, then a generous or brave action.