I--this thought which is called I--is the mould into which the world is poured like melted wax.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.

I do not wonder at a snowflake, a shell, a summer landscape, or the glory of the stars; but at the necessity of beauty under which the universe lies.

I know of no such unquestionable badge and ensign of a sovereign mind as that of tenacity of purpose.

Who heeds the waste abyss of possibility? The ocean is everywhere the same, but it has no character until seen with the shore or the ship.

It is God in you that responds to God without, or affirms his own words trembling on the lips of another.

Live in the fields, and God will give you lectures on natural philosophy every day.