Out of Plato come all things that are still written and debated about among men of thought.

We love flattery, even though we are not deceived by it, because it shows that we are of importance enough to be courted.

The Italians are fond of red clothes, peacock plumes, and embroidery; and I remember one rainy morning in the city of Palermo, the street was ablaze with scarlet umbrellas.

Each man has his own vocation; his talent is his call. There is one direction in which all space is open to him.

The prayer of the farmer kneeling in his field to weed it, the prayer of the rower kneeling with the stroke of his oar, are true prayers heard throughout nature.

There are many virtues in books, but the essential value is the adding of knowledge to our stock by the record of new facts, and, better, by the record of intuitions which distribute facts, and are the formulas which supersede all histories.

All violence, all that is dreary and repels, is not power, but the absence of power.