There is a blessed necessity by which the interest of men is always driving them to the right; and, again, making all crime mean and ugly.

A little consideration of what takes place around us every day would show us that a higher law than that of our will regulates events; that our painful labors are unnecessary and fruitless; that only in our easy, simple, spontaneous action are we strong . . . . Place yourself in the middle of the stream of power and wisdom which animates all whom it floats, and you are without effort impelled to truth, to right, and a perfect contentment.

Some men are born to own, and can animate all their possessions. Others cannot: their owning is not graceful; seems to be a compromise of their character: they seem to steal their own dividends.

Why should we grope among the dry bones of the past, or put the living generation into masquerade out of its faded wardrobe?

I think the vice of our housekeeping is that it does not hold man sacred. The vice of government, the vice of education, the viceof religion, is one with that of the private life.

In a tavern everybody puts on airs except the landlord.

Only poetry inspires poetry.