With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall.

There is no event greater in life than the appearance of new persons about our hearth, except it be the progress of the characterwhich draws them.

The action of the soul is oftener in that which is felt and left unsaid than in that which is said in any conversation. It broods over every society, and men unconsciously seek for it in each other.

The wave of evil washes all our institutions alike.

America is another name for opportunity.

Spartans, stoics, heroes, saints and gods use short and positive speech.

We may like well to know what is Plato’s and what is Montesquieu’s or Goethe’s part, and what thought was always dear to the writer himself; but the worth of the sentences consists in their radiancy and equal aptitude to all intelligence. They fit all our facts like a charm. We respect ourselves the more that we know them.