I would put myself in the attitude to look in the eye an abstract truth, and I cannot. I blench and withdraw on this side and on that. I seem to know what he meant who said, No man can see God face to face and live.

Every man contemplates an angel in his future self.

It never was in the power of any man or any community to call the arts into being. They come to serve his actual wants, never to please his fancy.

The customer is the immediate jewel of our souls. Him we flatter, him we feast, compliment, vote for, and will not contradict.

To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars.

We know that madness belongs to love,--what power to paint a vile object in hues of heaven.

To aim to convert a man by miracles is a profanation of the soul.