The poise of a plant, the bended tree recovering itself from the strong wind, the vital resources of every vegetable and animal, are also demonstrations of the self-sufficing, and therefore self-relying soul. All history from its highest to its trivial passages is the various record of this power.

Enthusiasm is the engine of success.

Physical force has no value, where there is nothing else. Snow in snow-banks, fire in volcanoes and solfataras is cheap. The luxury of ice is in tropical countries, and midsummer days. The luxury of fire is, to have a little on our hearth; and of electricity, not the volleys of the charged cloud, but the manageable stream on the battery-wires. So of spirit, or energy; the rests or remains of it in the civil and moral man, are worth all the cannibals in the Pacific.

A man in a cave or in a camp, a nomad, will die with no more estate than the wolf or the horse leaves.

The test of civilization is the power of drawing the most benefit out of cities.

The miracles of genius always rest on profound convictions which refuse to be analyzed.

In every situation do the thing you fear. If you do the thing you fear, the death of fear is certain.