History is the action and reaction of these two, nature and thought.

Flowers are the earth laughing.

I feel the same truth how often in my trivial conversation with my neighbours, that somewhat higher in each of us overlooks this by-play, and Jove nods to Jove from behind each of us.

Of all debts, men are least willing to pay their taxes; what a satire this is on government.

An imaginative book renders us much more service at first, by stimulating us through its tropes, than afterward, when we arrive atthe precise sense of the author. I think nothing is of any value in books, excepting the transcendental and extraordinary.

If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.

The student is to read history actively and not passively.