The solitary side of our nature demands leisure for reflection upon subjects on which the dash and whirl of daily business, so long as its clouds rise thick about us, forbid the intellect to fasten itself.

There are at bottom but two possible religions--that which rises in the moral nature of man, and which takes shape in moral commandments, and that which grows out of the observation of the material energies which operate in the external universe.

A single seed of fact will produce in a season or two a harvest of calumnies; but sensible men will pay no attention to them.

The practical effect of a belief is the real test of its soundness. Where we find a heroic life appearing as the uniform fruit of a particular mode of opinion, it is childish to argue in the face of fact that the result ought to have been different.

As we advance in life, we learn the limits of our abilities.

We live merely on the crust or rind of things.

The moral system of the universe is like a document written in alternate ciphers, which change from line to line.