People wish to be settled; only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them.

The history of reform is always identical; it is the comparison of the idea with the fact. Our modes of living are not agreeable to our imagination. We suspect they are unworthy. We arraign our daily employments.

The things taught in schools & colleges are not an education but the means of education.

A new person is to me a great event, and hinders me from sleep. I have often had fine fancies about persons which have given me delicious hours; but the joy ends in the day; it yields no fruit.

Nature is a rag merchant, who works up every shred and ort and end into new creations.

Spoons and skimmers you can be undistinguishably together; but vases and statues require each a pedestal for itself.

Win as if you were used to it, lose as if you enjoyed it for a change.