There is always a best way of doing everything, if it be to boil an egg. Manners are the happy ways of doing things.

The true ship is the ship builder.

There is a property in the horizon which no man has, but he whose eyes can integrate all the parts,--that is, the poet.

A man should have a farm or a mechanical craft for his culture. We must have a basis for our higher accomplishments, our delicate entertainments of poetry and philosophy, in the work of our hands.

The spirit only can teach. Not any profane man, not any sensual, not any liar, not any slave can teach, but only he can give, whohas; he only can create, who is. The man on whom the soul descends, through whom the soul speaks, alone can teach. Courage, piety, love, wisdom, can teach; and every man can open his door to these angels, and they shall bring him the gift of tongues. But the man who aims to speak as books enable, as synods use, as the fashion guides, and as interest commands, babbles. Let him hush.

I am constrained every moment to acknowledge a higher origin for events than the will I call mine.

Whom God has put asunder, why should man put together?