So far as discipline is concerned, freedom means not its absence but the use of higher and more rational forms as contrasted with those that are lower or less rational.

It is surely a matter of common observation that a man who knows no one thing intimately has no views worth hearing on things in general. The farmer philosophizes in terms of crops, soils, markets, and implements, the mechanic generalizes his experiences of wood and iron, the seaman reaches similar conclusions by his own special road; and if the scholar keeps pace with these it must be by an equally virile productivity.

When one has come to accept a certain course as duty he has a pleasant sense of relief and of lifted responsibility, even if the course involves pain and renunciation. It is like obedience to some external authority; any clear way, though it lead to death, is mentally preferable to the tangle of uncertainty.

Failure sometimes enlarges the spirit. You have to fall back upon humanity and God.

The literature of the inner life is very largely a record of struggle with the inordinate passions of the social self.

Form the habit of making decisions when your spirit is fresh...to let dark moods lead is like choosing cowards to command armies.

One should never criticize his own work except in a fresh and hopeful mood. The self-criticism of a tired mind is suicide.