Shakespeare will never be made by the study of Shakespeare.
Shakspeare is the only biographer of Shakspeare; and even he can tell nothing, except to the Shakspeare in us; that is, to our most apprehensive and sympathetic hour.
If we tire of the saints, Shakspeare is our city of refuge.
If I could put my hand on the north star, would it be as beautiful? The sea is lovely, but when we bathe in it the beauty forsakesall the near water. For the imagination and senses cannot be gratified at the same time.
Human character evermore publishes itself. The most fugitive deed and word, the intimated purpose, express character.
They think him the best dressed man, whose dress is so fit for his use that you cannot notice or remember to describe it.
If the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him.
Frankness invites frankness.
When God lets loose a great thinker on this planet, then all things are at risk. There is not a piece of science but its flank may be turned to-morrow; nor any literary reputation or the so-called eternal names of fame that many not be refused and condemned.
What potent blood hath modest May.
Of course you will insist on modesty in the children, and respect to their teachers, but if the boy stops you in your speech, cries out that you are wrong and sets you right, hug him!
Heaven always bears some proportion to earth. The god of the cannibal will be a cannibal, of the crusades a crusader, and of the merchants a merchant.
If I should go out of church whenever I hear a false sentiment, I could never stay there five minutes.
There is one topic peremptorily forbidden to all well-bred, to all rational mortals, namely, their distempers. If you have not slept or if you have slept or if you have head ache or sciatica or leprosy or thunder-stroke, I beseech you, by all angels, to hold your peace and not pollute the morning.
Strong men greet war, tempest, hard times. They wish, as Pindar said, to tread the floors of hell, with necessities as hard as iron.
Extremes meet, and there is no better example than the naughtiness of humility.
Science is nothing but the finding of analogy, identity, in the most remote parts.
The possibility of interpretation lies in the identity of the observer with the observed. Each material thing has its celestial side; has its translation, through humanity, into the spiritual and necessary sphere, where it plays a part as indestructible as any other.
One of the most wonderful things in nature is a glance of the eye; it transcends speech; it is the bodily symbol of identity.
Do not tell me of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor? I tell thee, thou foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent, I give to such men as do not belong to me and to whom I do not belong.