I have been told by persons of experience in matters of taste, that the fashions follow a law of gradation, and are never arbitrary. The new mode is always only a step onward in the same direction as the last mode; and a cultivated eye is prepared for and predicts the new fashion.

The reverence for the Scriptures is an element of civilization, for thus has the history of the world been preserved, and is preserved.

Religious literature has eminent examples, and if we run over our private list of poets, critics, philanthropists and philosophers, we shall find them infected with this dropsy and elephantiasis, which we ought to have tapped.

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.

If I know your sect, I anticipate your argument

In America and Europe, the nomadism is of trade and curiosity.

Every action has an ancestor of a thought.