The saint and poet seek privacy to ends the most public and universal: and it is the secret of culture, to interest the man more in his public, than in his private quality.

It is in rugged crises, in unbearable endurance, and in aims which put sympathy out of the question, that the angel is shown.

Human society is made up of partialities. Each citizen has an interest and a view of his own, which, if followed out to the extreme, would leave no room for any other citizen.

The conscious utterance of thought, by speech or action, to any end, is art.

If I cannot brag of knowing something, then I brag of not knowing it; at any rate, brag.

I will not hide my tastes or aversions. If you are true, but not in the same truth with me, cleave to your companions; I will seek my own.

Only be admonished by what you already see, not to strike leagues of friendship with cheap persons, where no friendship can be. Our impatience betrays us into rash and foolish alliances which no God attends.