If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man's shoulders. I must get off him first, that he may pursue his contemplations too.

Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry.

Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.

The press is, almost without exception, corrupt.

I am resolved that I will not through humility become the devil's attorney. I will endeavor to speak a good word for the truth.

The experience of every past moment but belies the faith of each present.

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.