No matter what a man does, he is not fully sane or human unless there is a spirit of freedom in him, a soul unconfined by purpose and larger than the practicable world.

A talent somewhat above mediocrity, shrewd and not too sensitive, is more likely to rise in the world than genius.

We cannot feel strongly toward the totally unlike because it is unimaginable, unrealizable; nor yet toward the wholly like because it is stale - identity must always be dull company. The power of other natures over us lies in a stimulating difference which causes excitement and opens communication, in ideas similar to our own but not identical, in states of mind attainable but not actual.

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

We are ashamed to seem evasive in the presence of a straightforward man, cowardly in the presence of a brave one, gross in the eyes of a refined one, and so on. We always imagine, and in imagining share, the judgments of the other mind.

To persuade is more trouble than to dominate, and the powerful seldom take this trouble if they can avoid it.

As social beings we live with our eyes upon our reflection, but have no assurance of the tranquillity of the waters in which we see it.