There is creative reading as well as creative writing.

We are rich only through what we give, and poor only through what we refuse.

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

The way of Providence is a little rude. The habit of snake and spider, the snap of the tiger and other leapers and bloody jumpers, the crackle of the bones of his prey in the coil of the anaconda-these are in the system, and our habits are like theirs.

A man's growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends.

There is really no insurmountable barrier save your own inherent weakness of purpose.

Painting seems to be to the eye what dancing is to the limbs. When that has educated the frame to self-possession, to nimbleness,to grace, the steps of the dancing-master are better forgotten; so painting teaches me the splendor of color and the expression of form, and as I see many pictures and higher genius in the art, I see the boundless opulence of the pencil, the indifferency in which the artist stands free to choose out of the possible forms.