If a man wants to read good books, he must make a point of avoiding bad ones; for life is short, and time and energy limited.

...this our world, which is so real, with all its suns and milky ways is-nothing.

That I could clamber to the frozen moon. And draw the ladder after me.

What people commonly call Fate is, as a general rule, nothing but their own stupid and foolish conduct.

Every human perfection is allied to a defect into which it threatens to pass, but it is also true that every defect is allied to a perfection.

Nothing in life gives a man so much courage as the attainment or renewal of the conviction that other people regard him with favor; because it means that everyone joins to give him help and protection, which is an infinitely stronger bulwark against the ills of life than anything he can do himself.

I am often surprised by the cleverness, and now and again by the stupidity, of my dog; and I have similar experiences with mankind.