Like bones to the human body, the axle to the wheel, the wing to the bird, and the air to the wing, so is liberty the essence of life. Whatever is done without it is imperfect.

To busy oneself with what is futile when one can do something useful, to attend to what is simple when one has the mettle to attempt what is difficult, is to strip talent of its dignity.

Man is a living duty, a depository of powers that he must not leave in a brute state. Man is a wing.

Perhaps the enemies of liberty are such only because they judge it by its loud voice.

I have lived in the monster and I know its insides; and my sling is the sling of David.

I come from all places and to all places I go: I am art among the arts and mountain among mountains. I know the strange names of flowers and herbs and of fatal deceptions and magnificent griefs. In night's darkness I've seen raining down on my head pure flames, flashing rays of beauty divine.

Fortunately, there is a sane equilibrium in the character of nations, as there is in that of men.