Essays, entitled critical, are epistles addressed to the public, through which the mind of the recluse relieves itself of its impressions.

As to marriage, I think the intercourse of heart and mind may be fully enjoyed without entering into this partnership of daily life.

The persons whom you have idolized can never, in the end, be ungrateful, and, probably, at the time of retreat they still do justice to your heart. But, so long as you must draw persons too near you, a temporary recoil is sure to follow. It is the character striving to defend itself from a heating and suffocating action upon it.

Man is not made for society, but society is made for man. No institution can be good which does not tend to improve the individual.

All great expression, which on a superficial survey seems so easy as well as so simple, furnishes after a while, to the faithful observer, its own standard by which to appreciate it.

The life of the soul is incalculable.

Truth is the nursing mother of genius.