Of all the men who were said to be my contemporaries, it seemed to me that John Brown was the only one who had not died.

The great poem must have the stamp of greatness as well as its essence.

No man ever followed his genius till it misled him.

Wherever there is a channel for water, there is a road for the canoe.

Every man looks at his wood-pile with a kind of affection.

The fibers of all things have their tension and are strained like the strings of an instrument.

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