The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.
There is creative reading as well as creative writing.
Nature and Books belong to the eyes that see them.
Nothing external to you has any power over you.
In my walks, every man I meet is my superior in some way, and in that I learn from him.
Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much.
That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.
If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
Life is short, but there is always time enough for courtesy.
Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.
Some books leave us free and some books make us free.
Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.
All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients.
Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.
Beauty without expression is boring.
Friendship, like the immortality of the soul, is too good to be believed. When friendships are real, they are not glass threads or frost work but the solidest things we know.