And of poetry, the success is not attained when it lulls and satisfies, but when it astonishes and fires us with new endeavours after the unattainable.

Manners are the happy ways of doing things; each one a stroke of genius or of love, now repeated and hardened into usage, they form at last a rich varnish, with which the routine of life is washed, and its details adorned. If they are superficial, so are the dew-drops which give such a depth to the morning meadows.

It is easy to see that a greater self-reliance must work a revolution in all the offices and relations of men; in their religion; in their education; in their pursuits; their modes of living; their association; in their property; in their speculative views.

Friendship is an order of nobility; from its revelations we come more worthily into nature.

It is one soul which animates all men.

It is one of the beautiful compensations in this life that no one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

It is one of the biggest blessing that you can be stupid with your true friends and behave like you shame to do elsewhere