He is a dull observer whose experience has not taught him the reality and force of magic, as well as of chemistry.

There are many eyes that can detect and honor the prudent and household virtues; there are many that can discern Genius on his starry track, though the mob is incapable; but when that love which...

No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.

Nothing external to you has any power over you.

God enters by a private door into each individual.

People with great gifts are easy to find, but symmetrical and balanced ones never.

A man known to us only as a celebrity in politics or in trade, gains largely in our esteem if we discover that he has some intellectual taste or skill

The two parties which divide the state, the party of Conservatism and that of Innovation, are very old, and have disputed the possession of the world ever since it was made

In the vaunted works of Art, The master-stroke is Nature’s part

Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than material force, that thoughts rule the world.

Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.

I find that the Americans have no passions, they have appetites.

The chief mourner does not always attend the funeral.

The maxim of the tyrant, ‘If you would rule the world quietly, you must keep it amused

Men’s actions are too strong for them. Show me a man who has acted, and who has not been the victim and slave of his action.

The intellectual man requires a fine bait; the sots are easily amused. But everybody is drugged with his own frenzy, and the pageant marches at all hours, with music and banner and badge.

O friend, never strike sail to a fear! Come into port greatly, or sail with God the seas

What we seek we shall find; what we flee from flees from us.

The majority of men are bundles of beginnings

The longest wave is quickly lost in the sea.

There is a certain satisfaction in coming down to the lowest ground of politics, for we get rid of cant and hypocrisy.

Money is of no value; it cannot spend itself. All depends on the skill of the spender.

God enters by a private door into every individual.

All that I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.

There is something servile in the habit of seeking after a law which we must obey.

A man’s library is a sort of harem.

Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.

Half a man’s wisdom goes with his courage

The best efforts of a fine person is felt after we have left their presence.

Society acquires new arts, and loses old instincts.

The earth laughs in flowers.

The Artist always has the masters in his eyes.

When you were born you were crying and everyone else was smiling. Live your life so at the end, your’re the one who is smiling and everyone else is crying.

There is creative reading as well as creative writing.

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

Fear always springsfrom ignorance.

The student is to read history actively not passively.

The god of Victory is said to be one-handed, but Peace gives victory to both sides.

That which we are, we shall teach, not voluntarily, but involuntarily. Thoughts come into our minds by avenues which we never left open, and thoughts go out of our minds through avenues which we never...

Use language what you will, you can never say anything but what you are.

Give me health and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous.

Common sense is as rare as genius.

Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.

To the dull mind nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light.

To help the young soul, to add energy, inspire hope, and blow the coals into a useful flame; to redeem defeat by new thought and firm action, this, though not easy, is the work of...

The attraction and superiority of California are in its days. It has better days & more of them, than any other country.

He that writes to himself writes to an eternal public

Life too near paralyses art.

Courage consists in equality to the problem before us.

Every man believes that he has a greater possibility