You think me the child of circumstance; I make my circumstance.

He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time.

To be rich is to have a ticket of admission to the masterworks and chief men of each race. It is to have the sea, by voyaging; to visit the mountains, Niagara, the Nile, the desert, Rome, Paris, Constantinople: to see galleries, libraries, arsenals, manufactories.

The compensations of calamity are made apparent to the understanding also, after long intervals of time.

We must learn the language of facts. The most wonderful inspirations die with their subject, if he has no hand to paint them to the senses.

On the other side, the conservative party, composed of the most moderate, able, and cultivated part of the population, is timid, and merely defensive of property. It vindicates no right, it aspires to no real good, it brands no crime, it proposes no generous policy, it does not build, nor write, nor cherish the arts, nor foster religion, nor establish schools, nor encourage science, nor emancipate the slave, nor befriend the poor, or the Indian, or the immigrant.

It is a tie between men to have read the same book.