The secret of culture is to learn, that a few great points steadily reappear, alike in the poverty of the obscurest farm, and in the miscellany of metropolitan life, and that these few are alone to be regarded,--the escape from all false ties; courage to be what we are; and love what is simple and beautiful; independence and cheerful relation, these are the essentials,--these, and the wish to serve,--to add somewhat to the well-being of men.

Nature is an endless combination and repetition of a very few laws. She hums the old well-known air through innumerable variations.

In the actual world--the painful kingdom of time and place--dwell care, and canker, and fear. With thought, with the ideal, is immortal hilarity, the rose of joy.

Better be a nettle in the side of your friend than his echo.

They who talk much of destiny, their birth-star, etc., are in a lower dangerous plane, and invite the evils they fear.

I am ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions.

It is greatest to believe and to hope well of the world, because he who does so, quits the world of experience, and makes the world he lives in.