The success of great scholars and thinkers is commonly a courtier-like success, not kingly, not manly.

When I consider how, after sunset, the stars come out gradually in troops from behind the hills and woods, I confess that I could not have contrived a more curious and inspiring sight.

If we see nature as pausing, immediately all mortifies and decays; but seen as progressing, she is beautiful.

Keep up the fires of thought, and all will go well.

Sobriety, severity, and self-respect are the foundations of all true sociality.

I am a happy camper so I guess I’m doing something right. Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion. I would rather ride on earth in an ox cart, with a free circulation, than go to heaven in the fancy car of an excursion train and breathe a malaria all the way.