We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.

Invariably our best nights were those when it rained.

There is no doubt that the loftiest written wisdom is either rhymed or in some way musically measured,--is, in form as well as substance, poetry; and a volume which should contain the condensed wisdom of mankind need not have one rhythmless line.

I have seen some who did not know when to turn aside their eyes in meeting yours. A truly confident and magnanimous spirit is wiser than to contend for the mastery in such encounters. Serpents alone conquer by the steadiness of their gaze. My friend looks me in the face and sees me, that is all.

To be admitted to Nature's hearth costs nothing. None is excluded, but excludes himself. You have only to push aside the curtain.

The government of the world I live in was not framed, like that of Britain, in after-dinner conversations over the wine.

Man's moral nature is a riddle which only eternity can solve.