Every now and then a man’s mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions.

When men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe… that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas– that the best test of truth...

The books we read should be chosen with great care, that they may be, as an Egyptian king wrote over his library,’The medicines of the soul.

My experience with public libraries is that the first volume of the book I inquire for is out, unless I happen to want the second, when that is out.

Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow.

Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man’s upper chamber, if he has common sense on the ground floor.

A man’s mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions.

The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce.

It’s faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living.

Trouble makes us one with every human being in the world – and unless we touch others, we’re out of touch with life.

If the wild filly, “Progress,” thou wouldst ride,Have young companions ever at thy side;But wouldst thou stride the stanch old mare, “Success,”Go with thine elders, though they please thee less.

Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked. Good mental machinery ought to break its own wheels and levers, if anything is thrust among them suddenly which tends to stop them or reverse...

The Last LeafI saw him once before,As he passed by the door,And againThe pavement stones resound,As he totters o’er the groundWith his cane.They say that in his prime,Ere the pruning-knife of TimeCut him down,Not a...

I hate paying taxes. But I love the civilization they give me

The best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests; just as the charm of music dwells not in the tones but in the echoes of our...

Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprang up.

Every library should try to complete on something, if it were only the history of pinheads.

There’s nothing that keeps its youth, so far as I know, but a tree and truth.

Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.

What refuge is there for the victim who is oppressed with the feeling that there are a thousand new books he ought to read, while life is only long enough for him to attempt to...

When I think of talking, it is of course with a woman. For talking at its best being an inspiration, it wants a corresponding divine quality of receptiveness, and where will you find this but...

Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing.

Beware how you take away hope from another human being

Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.

Science is the topography of ignorance.

Don’t flatter yourself that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. The nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become. Except in cases of...