A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.

We grizzle every day. I see no need of it. Whilst we converse with what is above us, we do not grow old, but grow young.

By degrees we may come to know the primitive sense of the permanent objects of nature, so that the world shall be to us an open book, and every form significant of its hidden life and final cause.

The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wears a mean appearance.

A man cannot speak but he judges himself

Health is the first muse, comprising the magical benefits of air, landscape, and bodily exercise on the mind.

Manners are very communicable: men catch them from each other.