We aim above the mark to hit the mark.

Thought is the seed of action; but action is as much its second form as thought is its first. It rises in thought, to the end that it may be uttered and acted. Always in proportion to the depth of its sense does it knock importunately at the gates of the soul, to be spoken, to be done.

A man must consider what a blindman's-buff is this game of conformity.

Proverbs are the literature of reason, or the statements of absolute truth, without qualification. Like the sacred books of each nation, they are the sanctuary of its intuitions.

Vigor is contagious, and whatever makes us either think or feel strongly adds to our power and enlarges our field of action.

Inaction is cowardice, but there can be no scholar without the heroic mind.

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.