Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect...

The soul, too has her virginity and must bleed a little before bearing fruit.

Parents lend children their experience and a vicarious memory; children endow their parents with a vicarious immortality.

The habit of looking for beauty in everything makes us notice the shortcomings of things, our sense, hungry for complete satisfaction, misses the perfection it demands.

It is a great bond to dislike the same things.

To drink in the spirit of a place you should be not only alone but unhurried.

To most people, I fancy, the stars are beautiful; but if you asked why, they would be at a loss to reply, until they remembered what they had heard about astronomy, and the great size and distance and possible habitation of those orbs. ... [We] persuade ourselves that the power of the starry heavens lies in the suggestion of astronomical facts.