The imagination, give it the least license, dives deeper and soars higher than Nature goes.

As for the dispute about solitude and society, any comparison is impertinent. It is an idling down on the plane at the base of a mountain, instead of climbing steadily to its top.

And if the civilized man's pursuits are no worthier than the savage's, if he is employed the greater part of his life in obtaininggross necessaries and comforts merely, why should he have a better dwelling than the former?

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

I was daily intoxicated, yet no man could call me intemperate.

I know that some will have hard thoughts of me, when they hear their Christ named beside my Buddha, yet I am sure that I am willing they should love their Christ more than my Buddha, for the love is the main thing, and I like him too.

We have reason to be grateful for celestial phenomena, for they chiefly answer to the ideal in man.