Society is frivolous, and shreds its day into scraps, its conversation into ceremonies and escapes.

To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars.

Miracle comes to the miraculous, not to the arithmetician.

The advantage in education is always with those children who slip up into life without being objects of notice.

Of lower states, of acts of routine and sense, we can tell somewhat; but the masterpieces of God, the total growths and universalmovements of the soul, he hideth; they are incalculable. I can know that truth is divine and helpful; but how it shall help me I can have no guess, for so to be is the sole inlet of so to know.

Some men's words I remember so well that I must often use them to express my thought. Yes, because I perceive that we have heard the same truth, but they have heard it better.

Truth is the summit of being; justice is the application of it to affairs.