America is the greatest of opportunities and the worst of influences.

To keep beauty in its place is to make all things beautiful.

...science is nothing but developed perception, interpreted intent, common-sense rounded out and minutely articulated. It is therefore as much an instinctive product, as much a stepping forth of human courage in the dark, as is any inevitable dream or impulsive action.

That fear first created the gods is perhaps as true as anything so brief could be on so great a subject.

Emotion is primarily about nothing and much of it remains about nothing to the end.

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual.

The constant demands of the heart and the belly can allow man only an incidental indulgence in the pleasures of the eye and the understanding.