People are usually more firmly convinced that their opinions are precious than that they are true.

Gnomic wisdom, however, is notoriously polychrome, and proverbs depend for their truth entirely on the occasion they are applied to. Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it.

The mind of the Renaissance was not a pilgrim mind, but a sedentary city mind, like that of the ancients.

Wealth, religion, military victory have more rhetorical than efficacious worth.

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

Civilization is perhaps approaching one of those long winters that overtake it from time to time. Romantic Christendom - picturesque, passionate, unhappy episode - may be coming to an end. Such a catastrophe would be no reason for despair.

The great difficulty in education is to get experience out of ideas.