The passion of self-aggrandizement is persistent but plastic; it will never disappear from a vigorous mind, but may become morally higher by attaching itself to a larger conception of what constitutes the self.

A man may lack everything but tact and conviction and still be a forcible speaker; but without these nothing will avail... Fluency, grace, logical order, and the like, are merely the decorative surface of oratory.

The actual God of many Americans... is simply the current of American life.

To cease to admire is a proof of deterioration.

Could anything be more indicative of a slight but general insanity than the aspect of the crowd on the streets of Chicago?

There is no way to penetrate the surface of life but by attacking it earnestly at a particular point.

The mind is not a hermit's cell, but a place of hospitality and intercourse.