All things are moral; and in their boundless changes have an unceasing reference to spiritual nature.

But the mark of American merit in painting, in sculpture, in poetry, in fiction, in eloquence, seems to be a certain grace withoutgrandeur, and itself not new but derivative; a vase of fair outline, but empty,--which whoso sees, may fill with what wit and character is in him, but which does not, like the charged cloud, overflow with terrible beauty, and emit lightnings on all beholders.

If in the least particular, one could derange the order of nature, who would accept the gift of life?

The line of beauty is the line of perfect economy.

What is man born for but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man has made? A renouncer of lies; a restorer of truth and good? Imitating that great Nature which embossoms us all, and which sleeps no moment on an old past, but every hour repairs herself, yielding us every morning a new day, with every breath a new life?

A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.

A divine person is the prophecy of the mind; a friend is the hope of the heart.