The secret of force in writing lies not so much in the pedigree of nouns and adjectives and verbs, as in having something that you believe in to say, and making the parts of speech vividly conscious of it.

Truth, after all, wears a different face to everybody, and it would be too tedious to wait till all were agreed.

The true historical genius, to our thinking, is that which can see the nobler meaning of events that are near him, as the true poet is he who detects the divine in the casual; and we somewhat suspect the depth of his insight into the past who cannot recognize the godlike of to-day under that disguise in which it always visits us.

Those who love are but one step from heaven.

Who is it needs such flawless shafts as fate? What archer of his arrows is so choice, or hits the white so surely?

Year by year, more and more of the world gets disenchanted. Even the icy privacy of the arctic and antarctic circles is invaded. We have played Jack Horner with our earth, till there is never a plum left in it.

He gives only the worthless gold who gives from a sense of duty.