You boast of spending a tenth part of your income in charity; may be you should spend the nine tenths so, and done with it.

We never conceive the greatness of our fates.

I learned to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of nature, rather than a member of society.

It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves. There is none such.

Love must be as much a light as it is a flame.

Give me the old familiar world, post-office and all, with this ever new self, with this infinite expectation and faith, which does not know when it is beaten.

There is an incessant influx of novelty into the world, and yet we tolerate incredible dullness. When sometimes I am reminded that the mechanics and shopkeepers stay in their shops not only all the forenoon, but all the afternoon too, sitting with crossed legs, so many of them - as if the legs were made to sit upon, and not to stand or walk upon.