Good deeds shun the light as anxiously as evil deeds: the latter fear that disclosure will bring on pain (as punishment), while the former fear that disclosure will take away pleasure (that pure pleasure, that pleasure per se, which immediately ceases once the vanity's satisfaction is added).

The really historical performance would talk to ghosts.

A nation that still believes in itself holds fast to its own god.

The desire to annoy no one, to harm no one, can equally well be the sign of a just as of an anxious disposition.

All rejection and negation indicates a deficiency in fertility: fundamentally, if only we were good plowland we would allow nothing to go unused, and in every thing, event, and person we would welcome manure, rain, or sunshine.

I love him who is of a free spirit and a free heart: thus is his head only the bowels of his heart; his heart, however, causeth his down-going.

A nation is a detour of nature to arrive at five or six great men- yes, and then to get around them.