No cradle for an emperor's child was ever prepared with so much magnificence as this world has been made for man. But it is only his cradle.

Every boy wants someone older than himself to whom he may go in moods of confidence and yearning. The neglect of this child's want by grown people . . . is a fertile source of suffering.

Of all formal things in the world, a clipped hedge is the most formal; and of all the informal things in the world, a forest tree is the most informal.

We sleep, but the loom of life never stops, and the pattern which was weaving when the sun went down is weaving when it comes up in the morning.

Mirthfulness is in the mind and you cannot get it out. It is just as good in its place as conscience or veneration.

What we call wisdom is the result of all the wisdom of past ages. Our best institutions are like young trees growing upon the roots of the old trunks that have crumbled away.

Precise knowledge is the only true knowledge, and he who does not teach exactly, does not teach at all.