Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.

I do not know where to find in any literature, whether ancient or modern, any adequate account of that Nature with which I am acquainted.

There will never be a really free and enlightened state until the state comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived.

I found in myself, and still find, an instinct toward a higher, or, as it is named, spiritual life, as do most men, and another toward a primitive rank and savage one, and I reverence them both. I love the wild not less than the good.

Politics is but a narrow field.

The front aspect of great thoughts can only be enjoyed by those who stand on the side whence they arrive.

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.