What a man does, that he has. What has he to do with hope or fear? In himself is his might. Let him regard no good as solid but that which is in his nature, and which must grow out of him as long as he exists. The goods of fortune may come and go like summer leaves; let him scatter them on every wind as the momentary signs of his infinite productiveness.

Nature is reckless of the individual. When she has points to carry, she carries them.

The only right is what is after my constitution; the only wrong is what is against it.

There is no one who does not exaggerate. In conversation, men are encumbered with personality, and talk too much.

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.

Let a man behave in his own house as a guest.

All men plume themselves on the improvement of society, and no man improves.