We perceive that the schemers return again and again to common sense and labor. Such is the evidence of history.

There is nothing more difficult to find than oneself.

Who ever saw his old clothes, - his old coat, actually worn out, resolved into its primitive elements, so that it was not a deed of charity to bestow it on some poor boy, by him perchance to be bestowed on some poorer still, or shall we say richer, who could do with less? I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.

We are conscious of an animal in us, which awakens in proportion as our higher nature slumbers. It is reptile and sensual, and perhaps cannot be wholly expelled; like the worms which, even in life and health, occupy our bodies. Possibly we may withdraw from it, but never change its nature. I fear that it may enjoy a certain health of its own; that we may be well, yet not pure.

If within the sophisticated man there is not an unsophisticated one, then he is but one of the devil's angels.

Our molting season, like that of the fouls, must be a crisis in our lives.

A gun will give you the body, not the bird