Thought is essentially practical in the sense that but for thought no motion would be an action, no change a progress.

There is no greater stupidity or meanness than to take uniformity for an ideal, as if it were not a benefit and a joy to a man, being what he is, to know that many are, have been, and will be better than he.

I believe in the possibility of happiness, if one cultivates intuition and outlives the grosser passions, including optimism.

Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it.

Happiness is the only sanction of life; where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment.

... so in love the heart surrenders itself entirely to the one being that has known how to touch it. That being is not selected; it is recognised and obeyed.

A simple life is its own reward.