It is not length of life, but depth of life.

But only that soul can be my friend which I encounter on the line of my own march, that soul to which I do not decline, and which does not decline me, but, native of the same celestial latitude, repeats in its own all my experience.

Teach that God is, not was; that He speaketh, not spake.

Don't set out to teach theism from your natural history... You spoil both.

What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness.

That which we call character is a reserved force which acts directly by presence, and without means. It is conceived of as a certain undemonstrable force, a familiar or genius, by whose impulses the man is guided, but whose counsels he cannot impart.

Those who cannot tell what they desire or expect, still sigh and struggle with indefinite thoughts and vast wishes.