The rich man is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue.

Commonly men will only be brave as their fathers were brave, or timid.

He is not a true man of science who does not bring some sympathy to his studies, and expect to learn something by behaviour as well as application.

The sea-shore is a sort of neutral ground, a most advantageous point from which to contemplate this world. It is even a trivial place. The waves forever rolling to the land are too far-travelled and untamable to be familiar. Creeping along the endless beach amid the sun-squall and the foam, it occurs to us that we, too, are the product of sea-slime.

There may be something petty in a refined taste; it easily degenerates into effeminacy. It does not consider the broadest use. It is not content with simple good and bad, and so is fastidious and curious or nice only.

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

You must ascend a mountain to learn your relation to matter, and so to your own body, for it is at home there, though you are not.