Beware of jokes from which we go away hollow and ashamed.

All good conversation, manners, and action come from a spontaneity which forgets usages and makes the moment great.

Tis a short sight to limit our faith in laws to those of gravity, of chemistry, of botany, and so forth.

I hate this shallow Americanism which hopes to get rich by credit, to get knowledge by raps on midnight tables, to learn the economy of the mind by phrenology, or skill without study, or mastery without apprenticeship.

There are geniuses in trade as well as in war, or the state, or letters; and the reason why this or that man is fortunate is not to be told. It lies in the man: that is all anybody can tell you about it.

Earth endures; Stars abide.

The greatest discoveries are those that shed light unto ourselves.