So long as a man-of-war exists, it must ever remain a picture of much that is tyrannical and repelling in human nature.

The food of thy soul is light and space; feed it then on light and space. But the food of thy body is champagne and oysters; feed it then on champagne and oysters; and so shall it merit a joyful resurrection, if there is any to be.

When a companion's heart of itself overflows, the best one can do is to do nothing.

Where does any novelist pick up any character? For the most part, in town, to be sure.

The names of all fine authors are fictitious ones, far more so than that of Junius,--simply standing, as they do, for the mystical, ever-eluding Spirit of all Beauty, which ubiquitously possesses men of genius.

The entire merit of a man can never be made known; nor the sum of his demerits, if he have them. We are only known by our names; as letters sealed up, we but read each other's superscriptions.

I could...see in Emerson...that had he lived in those days when the world was made, he might have offered some valuable suggestions.