The less a man thinks or knows about his virtues, the better we like him.

In our fine arts, not imitation, but creation is the aim... The details, the prose of nature, he should omit, and give us only the spirit and splendour.

Of the Shaker society, it was formerly a sort of proverb in the country, that they always sent the devil to market.

It is long ere we discover how rich we are. Our history, we are sure, is quite tame: we have nothing to write, nothing to infer. But our wiser years still run back to the despised recollections of childhood. . . .

We walk alone in the world.

Would we codify the laws that should reign in households, and whose daily transgression annoys and mortifies us, and degrades our household life, we must adorn every day with sacrifices. Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices.

Truth is always present; it only needs to lift the iron lids of the mind's eye to read its oracles.