Tragedy is always a mistake; and the loneliness of the deepest thinker, the widest lover, ceases to be pathetic to us so soon as the sun is high enough above the mountains.

The man of science dissects the statement, verifies the facts, and demonstrates connection even where he cannot its purpose.

Next to invention is the power of interpreting invention; next to beauty the power of appreciating beauty.

I know of no inquiry which the impulses of man suggests that is forbidden to the resolution of man to pursue.

This is the method of genius, to ripen fruit for the crowd by those rays of whose heat they complain.

There is no wholly masculine man, no purely feminine woman.

Our desires, once realized, haunt us again less readily.