Receptiveness is a rare and massive power, like fortitude.

[It is easier] to quell emotion than to incur the consequences of venting it.

Ingenious philosophers tell you, perhaps, that the great work of the steam-engine is to create leisure for mankind. Do not believe them; it only creates a vacuum for eager thought to rush in.

I couldn't live in peace if I put the shadow of a willful sin between myself and God.

The dull mind, once arriving at an inference that flatters the desire, is rarely able to retain the impression that the notion from which the inference started was purely problematic.

Nature repairs her ravages,--repairs them with her sunshine and with human labor.

There's things to put up wi' in ivery place, an' you may change an' change an' not better yourself when all's said an' done.