A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority.

I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born.

To the man who cherishes a secret in his breast, there is a still greater secret unexplored. Our most indifferent acts may be a matter for secrecy, but whatever we do with the utmost truthfulness and integrity, by virtue of its pureness, must be transparent as light.

There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living.

Things don't change. We change.

We do not enjoy poetry unless we know it to be poetry.

It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.