There is a slumbering subterranean fire in nature which never goes out, and which no cold can chill.

I confess I was surprised to find that so many men spent their whole day, ay, their whole lives almost, a-fishing. It is remarkable what a serious business men make of getting their dinners, and how universally shiftlessness and a groveling taste take refuge in a merely ant-like industry. Better go without your dinner, I thought, than be thus everlastingly fishing for it like a cormorant. Of course, viewed from the shore, our pursuits in the country appear not a whit less frivolous.

Many an object is not seen, though it falls within the range of our visual ray, because it does not come within the range of our intellectual ray.

The monster is never just there where we think he is. What is truly monstrous is our cowardice and sloth.

We are all of us Apollos serving some Admetus.

A healthy man, indeed, is the complement of the seasons, and in winter, summer is in his heart.

We can conceive of nothing more fair than something which we have experienced.