Truth is a jewel which should not be painted over; but it may be set to advantage and shown in a good light.

Music is essentially useless, as is life.

Plasticity loves new moulds because it can fill them, but for a man of sluggish mind and bad manners there is decidedly no place like home.

The Universe, so far as we can observe it, is a wonderful and immense engine; its extent, its order, its beauty, its cruelty, makes it alike impressive.

The truth is cruel, but it can be loved, and it makes free those who have loved it.

If clearness about things produces a fundamental despair, a fundamental despair in turn produces a remarkable clearness or even playfulness about ordinary matters.

Boston was a moral and intellectual nursery, always busy applying first principles to trifles.