Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be.

Morning work! By the blushes of Aurora and the music of Memnon, what should be man's morning work in this world?

It is as hard to see one's self as to look backwards without turning around.

I please myself with imagining a State at least which can afford to be just to all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor; which even would not think it inconsistent with its own repose if a few were to live aloof from it, not meddling with it, nor embraced by it, who fulfilled all the duties of neighbors and fellow-men. A State which bore this kind of fruit, and suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious State, which also I have imagined, but not yet anywhere seen.

Let us not play at kittly-benders. There is a solid bottom everywhere.

There must be some nerve and heroism in our love, as of a winter morning.

A man will not need to study history to find out what is best for his own culture.