The effort of art is to keep what is interesting in existence, to recreate it in the eternal.

A soul is but the last bubble of a long fermentation in the world.

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

It takes patience to appreciate domestic bliss; volatile spirits prefer unhappiness.

Oaths are the fossils of piety.

Each religion necessarily contradicts every other religion, and probably contradicts itself. Religions, like languages, are necessary rivals. What religion a man shall have is a historical accident, quite as much as what language he shall speak.

Bid, then, the tender light of faith to shine By which alone the mortal heart is led Unto the thinking of the thought divine.