After all, the true seeing is within.

If we only look far enough off for the consequence of our actions, we can always find some point in the combination of results by which those actions can be justified: by adopting the point of view of a Providence who arranges results, or of a philosopher who traces them, we shall find it possible to obtain perfect complacency in choosing to do what is most agreeable to us in the present moment.

In the ages since Adam's marriage, it has been good for some men to be alone, and for some women also.

The greatest benefit we owe to the artist, whether painter, poet, or novelist, is the extension of our sympathies.

The floods of nonsense printed in the form of critical opinions seem to me a chief curse of the times, a chief obstacle to true culture.

There is no sort of wrong deed of which a man can bear the punishment alone; you can't isolate yourself and say that the evil that is in you shall not spread. Men's lives are as thoroughly blended with each other as the air they breathe; evil spreads as necessarily as disease.

I think I am quite wicked with roses. I like to gather them, and smell them till they have no scent left.