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.

If anything can be invented more excruciating than an English Opera, such as was the fashion at the time I was in London, I am sure no sin of mine deserves the punishment of bearing it.

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

The Arabian horse will not plough well, nor can the plough-horse be rode to play the jereed.

All around us lies what we neither understand nor use. Our capacities, our instincts for this our present sphere are but half developed. Let us confine ourselves to that till the lesson be learned; let us be completely natural; before we trouble ourselves with the supernatural. I never see any of these things but I long to get away and lie under a green tree and let the wind blow on me. There is marvel and charm enough in that for me.

All greatness affects different minds, each in its own particular kind, and the variations of testimony mark the truth of feeling.

Amid all your duties, keep some hours to yourself.