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

It is possible to be a master in false philosophy, easier, in fact, than to be a master in the truth, because a false philosophy can be made as simple and consistent as one pleases.

The universe, as far as we can observe it, is a wonderful and immense engine.... If we dramatize its life and conceive its spirit, we are filled with wonder, terror and amusement, so magnificent is the spirit.

Order, for a liberal, means only peace; and the hope of a profound peace was one of the chief motives in the liberal movement. Concessions and tolerance and equality would thus have really led to peace, and to peace of the most radical kind, the peace of moral extinction.

The God to whom depth in philosophy bring back men's minds is far from being the same from whom a little philosophy estranges them

It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas.

Character is the basis of happiness and happiness the sanction of character.