The very cheapness of literature is making even wise people forget that if a book is worth reading, it is worth buying. No book is worth anything which is not worth much; nor is it serviceable, until it has been read, and re-read, and loved, and loved again; and marked, so that you can refer to the passages you want in it.

Milton saw not, and Beethoven heard not, but the sense of beauty was upon them, and they fain must speak.

See that your children be taught, not only the labors of the earth, but the loveliness of it.

Punishment is the last and the least effective instrument in the hands of the legislator for the prevention of crime.

You cannot get anything out of nature or from God by gambling; only out of your neighbor.

Obedience is, indeed, founded on a kind of freedom, else it would become mere subjugation, but that freedom is only granted that obedience may be more perfect; and thus while a measure of license is necessary to exhibit the individual energies of things, the fairness and pleasantness and perfection of them all consist in their restraint.

... 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)