The sort of morality which the priests inculcate is a very subtle policy, far finer than the politicians', and the world is very successfully ruled by them as the policemen.

When I stand in a library where is all the recorded wit of the world, but none of the recording, a mere accumulated, and not trulycumulative treasure; where immortal works stand side by side with anthologies which did not survive their month, and cobweb and mildew have already spread from these to the binding of those; and happily I am reminded of what poetry is,--I perceive that Shakespeare and Milton did not foresee into what company they were to fall. Alas! that so soon the work of a true poet should be swept into such a dust-hole!

The church is a sort of hospital for men's souls and as full of quackery as the hospital for their bodies.

In the unbending of the arm to do the deed there is experience worth all the maxims in the world.

A lake is a landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.

Every blade in the field - Every leaf in the forest - lays down its life in its season as beautifully as it was taken up.

Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage.