Life seems to go on without effort when I am filled with music.

To think of the part one little woman can play in the life of a man, so that to renounce her may be a very good imitation of heroism, and to win her may be a discipline.

Genius is the capacity for receiving and improving by discipline.

Ignorance ... is a painless evil; so, I should think, is dirt, considering the merry faces that go along with it.

Only those who know the supremacy of the intellectual life──the life which has a seed of ennobling thought and purpose within──can understand the grief of one who falls from that serene activity into the absorbing soul-wasting struggle with worldly annoyances.

Ignorance is not so damnable as humbug, but when it prescribes pills it may happen to do more harm.

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