Nothing is so irrevocable as mind.

Nothing can be meaner than the anxiety to live on, to live on anyhow and in any shape; a spirit with any honor is not willing to live except in its own way, and a spirit with any wisdom is not over-eager to live at all.

It would be hard to conceive a system of instincts more nicely adjusted, where the constituents should represent or support one another better. The husband has an interest in protecting the wife, she in serving the husband. The weaker gains in authority and safety, the wilder and more unconcerned finds a help-mate at home to take thought of his daily necessities. Parents lend children their experience and a vicarious memory; children endow their parents with a vicarious immortality.

There is a prodigious selfishness in dreams: they live perfectly deaf and invulnerable amid the cries of the real world.

Prayer is not a substitute for work; it is an effort to work further and be efficient beyond the range of one's powers.

To be happy you must have taken the measure of your powers, tasted the fruits of your passion, and learned your place in the world.

The same battle in the clouds will be known to the deaf only as lightning and to the blind only as thunder.