Converse with a mind that is grandly simple, and literature looks like word-catching.

All natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence.

Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is no thread that is not a twist of these two strands.

I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make a valued adviser who was wont to importune me with the dear old doctrines of the church. On my saying, What have I to do with the sacredness of traditions, if I live wholly from within? my friend suggested, - "But these impulses may be from below, not from above." I replied, 'They do not seem to me to be such; but if I am the devil's child, I will live then from the devil.'

Sooner or later that which is now life shall be poetry, and every fair and manly trait shall add a richer strain to the song.

If a man lose his balance, and immerse himself in any trades or pleasures for their own sake, he may be a good wheel or pin, but he is not a cultivated man.

Men are lenses through which we read our own minds.