It sometimes occurs that memory has a personality of its own and volunteers or refuses its information at its will, not at mine.

Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore it if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.

Every heroic act measures itself by its contempt of some external good. But it finds its own success at last, and then the prudent also extol.

He in whom the love of repose predominates will accept the first creed, the first philosophy, the first political party he meets — most likely his father's. He gets rest, commodity, and reputation; but he shuts the door of truth.

If I could put my hand on the north star, would it be as beautiful? The sea is lovely, but when we bathe in it the beauty forsakesall the near water. For the imagination and senses cannot be gratified at the same time.

The new statement is always hated by the old, and, to those dwelling in the old, comes like an abyss of skepticism.

it in every fair face, every fair sky, every fair flower.