Nature and literature are subjective phenomena; every evil and every good thing is a shadow which we cast

When friendships are real, they are not glass threads or frost-work , but the solidest thing we know.

A strong person makes the law and custom null before his own will.

Tis the good reader that makes the good book.

So . . . I feel in regard to this aged England . . . pressed upon by transitions of trade and . . . competing populations,-I see her not dispirited, not weak, but well remembering that she has seen dark days before;-indeed, with a kind of instinct that she sees a little better in a cloudy day, and that, in storm of battle and calamity, she has a secret vigor and a pulse like a cannon.

The basis of good manners is self-reliance.

Knowledge is when you learn something new every day. Wisdom is when you let something go every day.