The chief effect of talk on any subject is to strengthen one's own opinions, and, in fact, one never knows exactly what he does believe until he is warmed into conviction by the heat of attack and defence.

The stranger who receives the rare gift of human kindness holds its value in his heart forever.

We are half ruined by conformity, but we should be wholly ruined without it.

I do not know the names of all the weeds and plants, I have to do as Adam did in his garden... name things as I find them.

No man but feels more of a man in the world if he have a bit of ground that he can call his own. However small it is on the surface, it is four thousand miles deep; and that is a very handsome property.

A great artist can paint a great picture on a small canvas.

The world is full of poetry as the earth is of pay-dirt; one only needs to know how to strike it.