Let every man be free to act from his own conscience; but let him remember that other people have consciences too; and let not his liberty be so expansive that in its indulgence it jars and crashes against the liberty of others.

Is there anything so wretched as to look at a man of fine abilities doing nothing?

The individual and the race are always moving, and as we drift into new latitudes new lights open in the heaven more immediately over us.

A true man never frets about his place in the world, but just slides into it by the gravitation of his nature, and swings there as easily as a star.

Truth is new, as well as old. It has new forms; and where you may find a new statement, an earnest statement, you may conclude that by the law of progress it is more likely to be a correct statement than that which has been repeated for ages by the lips of tradition.

There is such a thing as honest pride and self-respect.

The highest genius never flowers in satire, but culminates in sympathy with that which is best in human nature, and appeals to it.