In youth men are apt to write more wisely than they really know or feel; and the remainder of life may be not idly spent in realizing and convincing themselves of the wisdom which they uttered long ago.

Those with whom we can apparently become well acquainted in a few moments are generally the most difficult to rightly know and to understand.

Ugliness without tact is horrible.

When an uninstructed multitude attempts to see with its eyes, it is exceedingly apt to be deceived.

The greatest possible mint of style is to make the words absolutely disappear into the thought.

A few feathery flakes are scattered widely through the air, and hover downward with uncertain flight, now almost alighting on the earth, now whirled again aloft into remote regions of the atmosphere.

I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation. It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green.