The essential thing ‘in heaven and earth’ is that there should be a long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living.

Free will without fate is no more conceivable than spirit without matter, good without evil.

I am afraid that old women are more skeptical in their most secret heart of hearts than any man: they believe in the superficiality of existence as in its essence, and all virtue and profundity is to them merely a veil over this "truth," a most welcome veil over a pudendum--and so a matter of decency and modesty, and nothing else.

What makes one heroic? - Going out to meet at the same time one's highest suffering and one's highest hope.

A book calls for pen, ink, and a writing desk; today the rule is that pen, ink, and a writing desk call for a book.

And so do you suppose it must be a piece-work because it has been given to you (and could only be given to you) in pieces?

People who have given us their complete confidence believe that they have a right to ours. The inference is false, a gift confers no rights.