The soul answers never by words, but by the thing itself that is inquired after.

Each man reserves to himself alone the right of being tedious.

Men's actions are too strong for them. Show me a man who has acted, and who has not been the victim and slave of his action.

A poet is no rattlebrain, saying what comes uppermost, and, because he says every thing, saying, at last, something good; but a heart in unison with his time and country. There is nothing whimsical or fantastic in his production, but sweet and sad earnest, freighted with the weightiest convictions, and pointed with the most determined aim which any man or class knows of in his times.

The world we live in is but thickened light.

Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude.

The sermon which I write inquisitive of truth is good a year after, but that which is written because a sermon must be writ is musty the next day.