A man must be in sympathy with society around him, or else, not wish to be in sympathy with it. If neither of these two, he must be wretched.

The wise man in the storm prays God not for safety from danger but for deliverance from fear. It is the storm within which endangers him[,] not the storm without.

In the highest civilization, the book is still the highest delight. He who has once known its satisfactions is provided with a resource against calamity.

For, rightly, every man is a channel through which heaven floweth, and, whilst I fancied I was criticising him, I was censuring orrather terminating my own soul.

Our age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchres of the fathers. It writes biographies, histories and criticism.

Henceforth, please God, forever I forego the yolk of men's opinions. I will be light-hearted as a bird and live with God. I find him in the bottom of my heart, and I hear continually his voice therein.

If I am the devil's child, I will live then, by the devil.