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

Beethoven always sounds to me like the upsetting of a bag of nails, with here and there an also dropped hammer.

Let every dawn of morning be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close: — then let every one of these short lives leave its sure record of some kindly thing done for others — some goodly strength or knowledge gained for yourselves.

Like other beautiful things in this world, its end (that of a shaft) is to be beautiful; and, in proportion to its beauty, it receives permission to be otherwise useless. We do not blame emeralds and rubies because we cannot make them into heads of hammers.

Children see in their parents the past, their parents see in them the future; and if we find more love in the parents for their children than in children for their parents, this is sad but natural. Who does not entertain his hopes more than his recollections.

Greater completion marks the progress of art, absolute completion usually its decline.

God intends no man to live in this world without working, but it seems to me no less evident that He intends every man to be happy in his work.