When a whole nation is roaring patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and the purity of its heart..

Nothing is quite beautiful alone; nothing but is beautiful in the whole. A single object is only so far beautiful as it suggests this universal grace..

This knot of nature is so well tied that nobody was ever cunning enough to find the two ends..

What terrible questions we are learning to ask! The former men believed in magic, by which temples, cities, and men were swallowed up, and all trace ….

Beauty without expression is boring..

The mark of the man of the world is absence of pretension. He does not make a speech; he takes a low business-tone, avoids all brag, is nobody, dress….

The boxer's ring is the enjoyment of the part of society whose animal nature alone has been developed..

Don't set out to teach theism from your natural history... You spoil both..

When a man becomes cultivated, he develops a new respect for who he is. This causes him to be ashamed of his past identification of himself and other….

We fly to beauty as an asylum from the terrors of finite nature..

Can anybody remember when the times were not hard and money not scarce?.

Character is higher than intellect. Thinking is the function; living is the functionary..

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles..

My companion assumes to know my mood and habit of thought, and we go on from explanation to explanation, until all is said that words can, and we lea….

I suppose you could never explain to the most ingenous molusk that such a creature as a whale existed..

Look out into the July night, and see the broad belt of silver flame which flashes up the half of heaven, fresh and delicate as the bonfires of the m….

What potent blood hath modest May..

What we commonly call man, the eating, drinking, planting, counting man, does not, as we know him, represent himself, but misrepresents himself. Him ….

Earth endures; Stars abide..

The difference between Talent and Genius is that Talent says things which he has never heard but once, and Genius things which he has never heard..

A good intention but fixed and resolute - bent on high and holy ends, we shall find means to them on every side and at every moment; and even obstacl….