No nation has produced anything like his equal. There is no quality in the human mind, there is no class of topics, there is no region of thought, in which he has not soared or descended, and none in which he has not said the commanding word.

Why should you renounce your right to traverse the star-lit deserts of truth, of the premature comforts of an acre, house, and barn? Truth also has its roof, and bed, and board.

Go out of the house to see the moon, and't is mere tinsel; it will not please as when its light shines upon your necessary journey.

I think sometimes could I only have music on my own terms, could I live in a great city, and know where I could go whenever I wished the ablution and inundation of musical waves, that were a bath and a medicine.

The wonder is always new that any sane man can be a sailor.

Go forth into the busy world and love it. Interest yourself in its life, mingle kindly with its joys and sorrows.

Happy is the hearing man; unhappy the speaking man.