Thought is the seed of action; but action is as much its second form as thought is its first.

Discontent is want of self-reliance; it is infirmity of will.

I am not so foolish as to declaim against forms. Forms are as essential as bodies; but to exalt particular forms, to adhere to oneform a moment after it is outgrown, is unreasonable, and it is alien to the spirit of Christ.

Cannot we let [children] be themselves, and enjoy life in their own way? You are trying to make another you. One's enough.

I pray my companion, if he wishes for bread, to ask me for bread, and if he wishes for sassafras or arsenic, to ask me for them, and not to hold out his plate, as if I knew already.

Why should we grope among the dry bones of the past, or put the living generation into masquerade out of its faded wardrobe?

When it's dark enough men see stars.