Government is the political representative of a natural equilibrium, of custom, of inertia; it is by no means a representative of reason.

A simple life is its own reward.

Sanity is madness put to good use.

It would repel me less to be a hangman than a soldier, because the one is obliged to put to death only criminals sentenced by the law, but the other kills honest men who like himself bathe in innocent blood at the bidding of some superior.

Philosophy is a more intense sort of experience than common life is, just as pure and subtle music, heard in retirement, is something keener and more intense than the howling of storms or the rumble of cities.

The vital straining towards an ideal, definite but latent, when it dominates a whole life, may express that ideal more fully than could the best chosen words.

The works of nature first acquire a meaning in the commentaries they provoke.