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 virtues of a superior man are like the wind; the virtues of a common man are like the grass; the grass, when the wind passes over it, bends.

All expression of truth does at length take this deep ethical form.

A man's real faith is never contained in his creed, nor is his creed an article of his faith. The last is never adopted. This it is that permits him to smile ever, and to live even as bravely as he does. And yet he clings anxiously to his creed, as to a straw, thinking that that does him good service because his sheet anchor does not drag.

For the most part we allow only outlying and transient circumstances to make our occasions. They are, in fact, the cause of our distraction.

My actual life is a fact, in view of which I have no occasion to congratulate myself; but for my faith and aspiration I have respect. It is from these that I speak.

The world laughs in flowers.