If, at any time, it comes into my head, that a present is due from me to somebody, I am puzzled what to give, until the opportunity is gone.

All poets have signalized their consciousness of rare moments when they were superior to themselves, -when a light, a freedom, a power came to them which lifted them to performances far better than they could reach at other times.

In self-trust all the virtues are comprehended.

Talent may frolic and juggle; genius realizes and adds.

The first thing a great person does is make us realize the insignificance of circumstance.

Manners are the happy ways of doing things; each one a stroke of genius or of love, now repeated and hardened into usage, they form at last a rich varnish, with which the routine of life is washed, and its details adorned. If they are superficial, so are the dew-drops which give such a depth to the morning meadows.

General ideas are essences. They are our gods: they round and ennoble the most partial and sordid way of living.