Men need some kind of external activity, because they are inactive within.

In the blessings as well as in the ills of life, less depends upon what befalls us than upon the way in which it is met.

Apart from man, no being wonders at its own experience.

Most men are so thoroughly subjective that nothing really interests them but themselves.

A man of correct insight among those who are duped and deluded resembles one whose watch is right while all the clocks in the town give the wrong time.

Imagination is strong in a man when that particular function of the brain which enables him to observe is roused to activity without any necessary excitement of the sense. Accordingly, we find that imagination is active just in proportion as our sense are not excited by external objects. A long period of solitude, whether in prison or in a sick room; quiet, twilight, darkness-these are the things that promote its activity; and under their influence it comes into play of itself.

Writers may be classified as meteors, planets, and fixed stars.