I find nothing in fables more astonishing than my experience in every hour. One moment of a man's life is a fact so stupendous as to take the luster ….

Great men, great nations, have not been boasters and buffoons, but perceivers of the terror of life, and have manned themselves to face it..

If, at any time, it comes into my head, that a present is due from me to somebody, I am puzzled what to give, until the opportunity is gone..

It is very odd that Nature should be so unscrupulous. She is no saint . . ..

The sweetest music is not in the oratorio, but in the human voice when it speaks from its instant life tones of tenderness, truth, or courage..

Although knaves win in every political struggle, although society seems to be delivered over from the hands of one set of criminals into the hands of….

A man cannot speak but he judges himself.

The moment the doctrine of the immortality is separately taught, man is already fallen. In the flowing of love, in the adoration of humility, there i….

In Haydn's oratorios, the notes present to the imagination not only motions, as, of the snake, the stag, and the elephant, but colors also; as the gr….

The search after the great men is the dream of youth, and the most serious occupation of manhood..

Every great man is unique..

Sentimentalists ... adopt whatever merit is in good repute, and almost make it hateful with their praise. The warmer their expressions, the colder we….

It now appears that the negro race is, more than any other, susceptible of rapid civilization. The emancipation is observed, in the islands, to have ….

For every benefit you receive a tax is levied..

A man of genius is privileged only as far as he is genius. His dullness is as insupportable as any other dullness..

Skepticism is unbelief in cause and effect. A man does not see, that, as he eats, so he thinks: as he deals, so he is, and so he appears; he does not….

A beautiful woman is a picture which drives all beholders nobly mad..

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-morro….

I will no longer confer, differ, refer, defer, prefer, or suffer. I renounce the whole tribe of fero. I embrace absolute life..

Always maintain your common sense and artful skills, and funnel it all into plain enough dealings..

Far or forgot to me is near; Shadow and sunlight are the same; The vanished gods to me appear; And one to me are shame and fame.They reckon ill who l….