What is it men love in Genius, but its infinite hope, which degrades all it has done? Genius counts all its miracles poor and short. Its own idea it never executed.

Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances: it was somebody's name, or he happened to be there at right time, or it was so then, and another day it would have been otherwise. Strong men believe in cause and effect.

The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next.

A life in harmony with nature, the love of truth and virtue, will purge the eyes to understanding her text.

The picture waits for my verdict; it is not to command me, but I am to settle its claim to praise.

We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related; the eternal ONE.

When a man becomes a conformist, he is sacrificing the richness of independent thinking.