For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.

In the death of my son, now more than two years ago, I seem to have lost a beautiful estate,--no more. I cannot get it nearer to me.

Debt, grinding debt, whose iron face the widow, the orphan, and the sons of genius fear and hate; debt, which consumes so much time, which so cripples and disheartens a great spirit with cares that seem so base, is a preceptor whose lessons cannot be foregone, and is needed most by those who suffer from it most.

To have played and laughed with enthusiasm, and sung with exultation - this to to have succeeded.

I consider theology to be the rhetoric of morals.

Religion is as effectively destroyed by bigotry as by indifference.

The spirit of the world, the great calm presence of the creator, comes not forth to the sorceries of opium or of wine.