No one can be a great thinker who does not recognize that as a thinker it is his first duty to follow his intellect to whatever conclusions it may lead.

Any society which is not improving is deteriorating, and the more so the closer and more familiar it is. Even a really superior man almost always begins to deteriorate when he is habitually king of his company.

The habit of analysis has a tendency to wear away the feelings.

All that makes existence valuable to any one depends on the enforcement of restraints upon the actions of other people.

Art is the employent of the powers of nature for an end.

Marriage is the only actual bondage known to our law. There remain no legal slaves, except the mistress of every house.

Persons of genius, it is true, are, and are always likely to be, a small minority; but in order to have them, it is necessary to preserve the soil in which they grow.