The idea of duty--that recognition of something to be lived for beyond the mere satisfaction of self--is to the moral life what the addition of a great central ganglion is to animal life.

If we use common words on a great occasion, they are the more striking, because they are felt at once to have a particular meaning, like old banners, or everyday clothes, hung up in a sacred place.

We have all got to exert ourselves a little to keep sane, and call things by the same names as other people call them by.

Perhaps the most delightful friendships are those in which there is much agreement, much disputation, and yet more personal liking.

...Though there's reasons in things as nobody knows on---- that's pretty much what I've made out; yet some folks are so wise they'll find you fifty reasons straight off, and all the while the real reason's winking at 'em in the corner, and they niver see't.

The rich ate and drank freely, accepting gout and apoplexy as things that ran mysteriously in respectable families.

There is a great deal of unmapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms.