There must ... be in our very nature a very radical and widespread tendency to observe beauty, and to value it. No account of the principles of the mind can be at all adequate that passes over so conspicuous a faculty.

Fashion is something barbarous, for it produces innovation without reason and imitation without benefit.

The same battle in the clouds will be known to the deaf only as lightning and to the blind only as thunder.

To understand oneself is the classic form of consolation; to elude oneself is the romantic.

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.

The loftiest edifices need the deepest foundations.

Each religion, so dear to those whose life it sanctifies, and fulfilling so necessary a function in the society that has adopted it, necessarily contradicts every other religion, and probably contradicts itself.