The opportunities of living are diminished in proportion as what are called the "means" are increased.

We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers.

Truth is always paradoxical.

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.

Observation is so wide awake, and facts are being so rapidly added to the sum of human experience, that it appears as if the theorizer would always be in arrears, and were doomed forever to arrive at imperfect conclusion; but the power to perceive a law is equally rare in all ages of the world, and depends but little on the number of facts observed.

The deeds of love are less questionable than any action of an individual can be, for, it being founded on the rarest mutual respect, the parties incessantly stimulate each other to a loftier and purer life, and the act in which they are associated must be pure and noble indeed, for innocence and purity can have no equal. In this relation we deal with one whom we respect more religiously even than we respect our better selves, and we shall necessarily conduct as in the presence of God. What presence can be more awful to the lover than the presence of his beloved?

Every man will be a poet if he can; otherwise a philosopher or man of science. This proves the superiority of the poet.