Hospitality consists in a little fire, a little food, and an immense quiet

We cannot overstate our debt to the Past, but the moment has the supreme claim.

We do not yet trust the unknown power of thoughts.

I hate to be defended in a newspaper. As long as all that is said is said against me, I feel a certain assurance of success. But as soon as honeyed words of praise are spoken for me, I feel as one that lies unprotected before his enemies.

There is some reason to believe that when a man does not write his poetry it escapes by other vents through him, instead of the one vent of writing; clings to his form and manners, whilst poets have often nothing poetical about them except their verses.

A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.

Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much.