So in accepting the leading of the sentiments, it is not what we believe concerning the immortality of the soul, or the like, but the universal impulse to believe, that is the material circumstance, and is the principal fact in this history of the globe.

So in writing, there is always a right word, and every other than that is wrong. There is no beauty in words except in their collocation. The effect of a fanciful word misplaced, is like that of a horn of exquisite polish growing on a human head.

The hues of the opal, the light of the diamond, are not to be seen if the eye is too near.

At the gates of the forest, the surprised man of the world is forced to leave his city estimates of great and small, wise and foolish.

There can never be deep peace between two spirits, never mutual respect, until, in their dialogue, each stands for the whole world.

Do not fear to put novels into the hands of young people as an occasional holiday experiment, but above all, good poetry in all kinds,--epic, tragedy, lyric. If we can touch the imagination, we serve them; they will never forget it.

A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.