Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. Society acquires new arts, and loses old instincts.

A child is a curly, dimpled lunatic.

To the men of this world, to the animal strength and spirits, to the men of practical power, whilst immersed in it, the man of ideas appears out of his reason. They alone gave reason.

I wish to speak with all respect of persons, but sometimes I must pinch myself to keep awake, and preserve the due decorum. They melt so fast into each other, that they are like grass and trees, and it needs an effort to treat them as individuals.

Tis good-will makes intelligence.

Things admit of being used as symbols, because nature is a symbol, in the whole, and in every part.

Our impatience of miles, when we are in a hurry; but it is still best that a mile should have seventeen hundred and sixty yards.