If it costs ten years, and ten to recover the general prosperity, the destruction of the South is worth so much.

When I go into the garden with a spade and dig a bed I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands.

Style is only the frame to hold your thoughts. It is like the sash of a window; if heavy, it will obscure the light.

We ascribe beauty to that which is simple; which has no superfluous parts; which exactly answers its end; which stands related to all things; which is the mean of many extremes.

I see that sensible men and conscientious men all over the world were of one religion of well-doing and daring.

When at last in a race a new principle appears, an idea--that conserves it; ideas only save races.

Genius Borrows nobly.