Though you may have known clever men who were indolent, you never knew a great man who was so; and when I hear a young man spoken of as giving promise of great genius, the first question I ask about him always is, Does he work?

Nearly all our powerful men in this age of the world are unbelievers; the best of them in doubt and misery; the worst in reckless defiance; the plurality, in plodding hesitation, doing, as well as they can, what practical work lies ready to their hands.

The distinguishing sign of slavery is to have a price, and to be bought for it.

Government and cooperation are in all things the laws of life. Anarchy and competition, the laws of death.

I believe the right question to ask, respecting all ornament, is simply this; was it done with enjoyment, was the carver happy while he was about it?

No picture can be good which deceives by its imitation, for the very reason that nothing can be beautiful which is not true.

There is no process of amalgamation by which opinions, wrong individually, can become right merely by their multitude.