How few things can a man measure with the tape of his understanding ; How many greater things might he be seeing in the meanwhile.

Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought.

It [is of] some advantage to live a primitive and frontier life, though in the midst of an outward civilization, if only to learn what are the gross necessities of life.

Ninety-nine one-hundredths of our lives we are mere hedgers and ditchers, but from time to time we meet with reminders of our destiny.

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

Men have a respect for scholarship and learning greatly out of proportion to the use they commonly serve.

I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name,--if ten honest men only,--ay, if one HONESTman, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this copartnership, and be locked up in the county jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America. For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever.