What other dungeon is so dark as one's own heart! What jailer so inexorable as one's self!

It contributes greatly towards a man's moral and intellectual health, to be brought into habits of companionship with individuals unlike himself, who care little for his pursuits, and whose sphere and abilities he must go out of himself to appreciate.

I have come to see the nonsense of attempting to describe fine scenery. There is no such possibility. If scenery could be adequately reproduced in words, there would have been no need of God's making it in reality.

It is to the credit of human nature that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates.

If cities were built by the sound of music, then some edifices would appear to be constructed by grave, solemn tones,--others to have danced forth to light fantastic airs.

We sometimes congratulate ourselves.

I have laughed, in bitterness and agony of heart, at the contrast between what I seem and what I am!