In daily life what distinguishes the master is the using those materials he has, instead of looking about for what are more renowned, or what others have used well.

The affirmative of affirmatives... is love.

The virtues of society are vices of the saint. The terror of reform is the discovery that we must cast away our virtues, or what we have always esteemed such, into the same pit that has consumed our grosser vices.

Where the heart is, there the muses, there the gods sojourn, and not in any geography of fame. Massachusetts, Connecticut River, and Boston Bay, you think paltry places, and the ear loves names of foreign and classic topography. But here we are; and, if we tarry a little, we may come to learn that here is best. See to it, only, that thyself is here;--and art and nature, hope and fate, friends, angels, and the Supreme Being, shall not absent from the chamber where thou sittest.

Give all to love; Obey thy heart.

A great man is always willing to be little.

I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.