In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line.

We worship not the Graces, nor the Parcae, but Fashion. She spins and weaves and cuts with full authority. The head monkey at Paris puts on a traveler's cap, and all the monkeys in America do the same.

All the events which make the annals of the nations are but the shadows of our private experiences.

It behooves every man to see that his influence is on the side of justice, and let the courts make their own characters.

Do we call this the land of the free? What is it to be free from King George the Fourth and continue the slaves of prejudice? What is it to be born free and equal, and not to live? What is the value of any political freedom, but as a means to moral freedom?

Not till we are completely lost, or turned round, do we appreciate the vastness and strangeness of Nature.

Genius is not a retainer to any emperor.