We love flattery, even though we are not deceived by it, because it shows that we are of importance enough to be courted.

The intelligent have a right over the ignorant, namely, the right of instructing them. The right punishment of one out of tune, isto make him play in tune; the fine which the good, refusing to govern, ought to pay, is, to be governed by a worse man; that his guards shall not handle gold and silver, but shall be instructed that there is gold and silver in their souls, which will make men willing to give them every thing which they need.

Imagination is a very high sort of seeing.

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.

I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?

Heaven sometimes hedges a rare character about with ungainliness and odium, as the burr that protects the fruit.

We are not free to use today, or to promise tomorrow, because we are already mortgaged to yesterday.