If a man knew anything, he would sit in a corner and be modest; but he is such an ignorant peacock, that he goes bustling up and down, and hits on extraordinary discoveries.

It is one soul which animates all men.

Do not shut up the young people against their will in a pew, and force the children to ask them questions for an hour against their will.

The finest and noblest ground on which people can live is truth; the real with the real; a ground on which nothing is assumed.

Conversation is a game of circles.

The miracles of genius always rest on profound convictions which refuse to be analyzed.

At times the whole world seems to be in conspiracy to importune you with emphatic trifles. Friend, client, child, sickness, fear, want, charity, all knock at once at thy closet door and say,—'Come out unto us.' But keep thy state; come not into their confusion. The power men possess to annoy me I give them by a weak curiosity. No man can come near me but through my act.