Heroism works in contradiction to the voice of mankind and in contradiction, for a time, to the voice of the great and good. Heroism is an obedience to a secret impulse of an individual

As long as our civilization is essentially one of property, of fences, of exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions.

There are men who, by their sympathetic attractions, carry nations with them, and lead the activity of the human race.

Age, like woman, requires fit surroundings.

I feel some unwillingness to quit the remembrance of the past. With all the hope of the new I feel that we are leaving the old.

Few and mean as my gifts may be, I actually am, and do not need for my own assurance or the assurance of my fellows any secondary testimony.

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.