If a man sits down to think, he is immediately asked if he has a headache.

The only thing grief has taught me is to know how shallow it is.

Philanthropic and religious bodies do not commonly make their executive officers out of saints.

Whence, then, this worship of the past? The centuries are conspirators against the sanity and authority of the soul.

Tis the good reader that makes the good book; in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakenly meant for his ear; the profit of books is according to the sensibility of the reader; the profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine, until it is discovered by an equal mind and heart.

Universities are of course hostile to geniuses, which, seeing and using ways of their own, discredit the routine: as churches and monasteries persecute youthful saints.

God hid the whole world in thy heart.