There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness. And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces. And even if he for ever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still higher than other birds upon the plain, even though they soar.

Better be an old maid, a woman with herself as a husband, than the wife of a fool; and Solomon more than hints that all men are fools; and every wise man knows himself to be one.

At length I fell asleep, with the volume in my hand; and never slept so sound before

Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!

It is not for man to follow the trail of truth too far, since by so doing he entirely loses the directing compass of his mind.

beauty is like piety--you cannot run and read it; tranquility and constancy, with, now-a-days, an easy chair, are needed.

There are doubts, sir, which, if man have them, it is not man that can solve them.