Whoso does not see that genuine life is a battle and a march has poorly read his origin and his destiny.

So easy it is to see the errors of past ages, so difficult to acknowledge our own!

In the first place, the government ought not to be invested with power to control the affections, any more than the consciences of citizens. A man has at least as good a right to choose his wife, as he has to choose his religion. His taste may not suit his neighbors; but so long as his deportment is correct, they have no right to interfere with his concerns.

It is right noble to fight with wickedness and wrong; the mistake is in supposing that spiritual evil can be overcome by physical means.

I was gravely warned by some of my female acquaintances that no woman could expect to be regarded as a lady after she had written a book.

The eye of genius has always a plaintive expression, and its natural language is pathos.

Philosophy and the arts are but a manifestation of the intelligible ideas that move the public mind; and thus they become visible images of the nations whence they emanate.