Art is the effort of man to express the ideas which nature suggests to him of a power above nature, whether that power be within the recesses of his own being, or in the Great First Cause of which nature, like himself, is but the effect.

I was always an early riser. Happy the man who is! Every morning day comes to him with a virgin's love, full of bloom and freshness. The youth of nature is contagious, like the gladness of a happy child.

A man who cannot win fame in big own age will have a very small chance of winning it from posterity. True, there are some half-dozen exceptions to this truth among millions of myriads that attest it; but what man of common sense would invest any large amount of hope in so unpromising a lottery?

Every man who observes vigilantly, and resolves steadfastly, grows unconsciously into genius.

As the excitement of the game increases, prudence is sure to diminish.

Only by the candle, held in the skeleton hand of Poverty, can man read his own dark heart.

When the soul communes with itself the lip is silent.