The intellect searches out the Absolute order of things as they stand in the mind of God, and without the colors of affection. The intellectual and the active powers seem to succeed each other, and the exclusive activity of the one generates the exclusive activity of the other. There is something unfriendly in each to the other, but they are like the alternate periods of feeding and working in animals; each prepares and will be followed by the other.

Some books leave us free and some books make us free.

Of all wit's uses, the main one is to live well with who has none.

Great country, diminutive minds. America is formless, has no terrible and no beautiful condensation.

Every fact is related on one side to sensation, and, on the other, to morals. The game of thought is, on the appearance of one of these two sides, to find the other: given the upper, to find the under side.

Friendship is an order of nobility; from its revelations we come more worthily into nature.

Every promise of the soul has innumerable fulfillments; each of its joys ripens into a new want.