He that fancies himself very enlightened, because he sees the deficiencies of others, may be very ignorant, because he has not studied his own.

Books are but waste paper unless we spend in action the wisdom we get from thought.

Art itself is essentially ethical; because every true work of art must have a beauty or grandeur of some kind, and beauty and grandeur cannot be comprehended by the beholder except through the moral sentiment. The eye is only a witness; it is not a judge. The mind judges what the eye reports to it; therefore, whatever elevates the moral sentiment to the contemplation of beauty and grandeur is in itself ethical.

A man is arrogant in proportion to his ignorance. Man's natural tendency is to egotism. Man, in his infancy of knowledge, thinks that all creation was formed for him.

Power is so characteristically calm, that calmness in itself has the aspect of strength.

No author ever drew a character consistent to human nature, but he was forced to ascribe to it many inconsistencies.

We love the beautiful and serene, but we have a feeling as deep as love for the terrible and dark.