Kind hearts are the garden, kind thoughts are the roots, kind words are the blossoms, kind deeds are the fruit.

The common practice of keeping up appearances with society is a mere selfish struggle of the vain with the vain.

The art of nations is to be accumulative, just as science and history are; the work of living men not superseding, but building itself upon the work of the past.

... A power of obtaining veracity in the representation of material and tangible things, which, within certain limits and conditions, is unimpeachable, has now been placed in the hands of all men, almost without labour. (1853)

The power of association is stronger than the power of beauty; therefore, the power of association is the power of beauty.

What do we, as a nation, care about books? How much do you think we spend altogether on our libraries, public or private, as compared with what we spend on our horses?

A forest of all manner of trees is poor, if not disagreeable, in effect; a mass of one species of tree is sublime.