I wish that life should not be cheap, but sacred. I wish the days to be as centuries, loaded, fragrant.

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 teaching of politics is that the Government, which was set for protection and comfort of all good citizens, becomes the principal obstruction and nuisance with which we have to contend... The cheat and bully and malefactor we meet everywhere is the Government.

The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next.

The beautiful laws of time and space, once dislocated by our inaptitude, are holes and dens. If the hive be disturbed by rash and stupid hands, instead of honey, it will yield us bees.

Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins

We do what we must, and call it by the best names we can, and would fain have the praise of having intended the result which ensues.