Some men so dislike the dust kicked up by the generation they belong to, that, being unable to pass, they lag behind it.

Just, harmonious, temperate as is the spirit of liberty, there is in the name and mere notion of it a vagueness so opposite to the definite clearness of the moral law.

The praises of others may be of use in teaching us, not what we are, but what we ought to be.

The grand difficulty is to feel the reality of both worlds, so as to give each its due place in our thoughts and feelings, to keep our mind's eye and our heart's eye ever fixed on the land of promise, without looking away from the road along which we are to travel toward it.

How idle it is to call certain things God-sends! as if there was anything else in the world.

There is as much difference between good poetry and fine verses, as between the smell of a flower-garden and of a perfumer's shop.

Practical life teaches us that people may differ and that both may be wrong: it also teaches us that people may differ and both be right. Anchor yourself fast in the latter faith, or the former will sweep your heart away.