Nothing is great but the inexhaustible wealth of nature.

My own mind is the direct revelation which I have from God and far least liable to mistake in telling his will of any revelation.

Genius detects through the fly, through the caterpillar, through the grub, through the egg, the constant individual; through countless individuals the fixed species; through many species the genus; through all genera the steadfast type; through all the kingdoms of organized life the eternal unity. Nature is a mutable cloud which is always and never the same.

The Yankee is one who, if he once gets his teeth set on a thing, all creation can't make him let go.

Manners have been somewhat cynically defined to be a contrivance of wise men to keep fools at a distance. Fashion is shrewd to detect those who do not belong to her train, and seldom wastes her attentions. Society is very swift in its instincts, and if you do not belong to it, resists and sneers at you, or quietly drops you.

It is better to be a thorn in the side of a friend than an echo.

No power of genius has ever yet had the smallest success in explaining existence. The perfect enigma remains.