Old places and old persons in their turn, when spirit dwells in them, have an intrinsic vitality of which youth is incapable, precisely, the balance and wisdom that come from long perspectives and broad foundations

Nature drives with a loose rein and vitality of any sort can blunder through many a predicament in which reason would despair.

To be an American is of itself almost a moral condition, an education, and a career.

Love is a brilliant illustration of a principle everywhere discoverable: namely, that human reason lives by turning the friction of material forces into the light of ideal goods.

Our occasional madness is less wonderful than our occasional sanity.

The Soul is the voice of the body's interests.

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.