Ethics and religion differ herein; that the one is the system of human duties commencing from man; the other, from God. Religion includes the personality of God; Ethics does not.

The best lightning rod for your protection is your own spine.

The use of literature is to afford us a platform whence we may command a view of our present life, a purchase by which we may move it....we see literature best from the midst of wild nature, or from the din of affairs, or from a high religion. The field cannot be well seen from within the field.

Always maintain your common sense and artful skills, and funnel it all into plain enough dealings.

A man is a method, a progressive arrangement; a selecting principle, gathering his like to him; wherever he goes.

It has been the office of art to educate the perception of beauty. We are immersed in beauty but our eyes have no clear vision.

Two sorts of writers possess genius: those who think, and those who cause others to think.