The Southern character is opposed to haste. Safety is of more worth than speed, and there is no hurry.

To read a book, to think it over, and to write out notes is a useful exercise; a book which will not repay some hard thought is not worth publishing.

Besides learning to see, there is another art to be learned - not to see what is not.

Let us secure not such books as people want, but books just above their wants, and they will reach up to take what is put out for them.

But why look back at all? Why turn your eyes to your shadow, when, by looking upward, you see your rainbow in the same direction?

I would as soon put a girl alone into a closet to meditate as give her only the society of her needle.

There is something of the same pleasure in noticing the hues of the stars that there is in looking at a flower garden in autumn.