A man may be buoyed up by the efflation of his wild desires to brave any imaginable peril; but he cannot calmly see one he loves braving the same peril; simply because he cannot feel within turn that which prompts another. He sees the danger, and feels not the power that is to overcome it.

Mathematicians do not write for the circulating library.

A man may be variously accomplished, and yet be a feeble poet.

The real people of genius were resolute workers not idle dreamers.

Personal experience is the basis of all real literature.

It is not true that a man can believe or disbelieve what he will. But it is certain that an active desire to find any proposition true will unconsciously tend to that result by dismissing importunate suggestions which run counter to the belief, and welcoming those which favor it. The psychological law, that we only see what interests us, and only assimilate what is adapted to our condition, causes the mind to select its evidence.

In all sincere speech there is power, not necessarily great power, but as much as the speaker is capable of.