A dominant religion is never ascetic.

Every sect clamors for toleration when it is down.

This is the highest miracle of genius, that things which are not should be as though they were, that the imaginations of one mind should become the personal recollections of another.

Both in individuals and in masses violent excitement is always followed by remission, and often by reaction. We are all inclined to depreciate whatever we have overpraised, and, on the other hand, to show undue indulgence where we have shown undue rigor.

We cannot absolutely prove that those are in error who tell us that society has reached a turning point, that we have seen our best days. But so said all before us, and with just as much apparent reason.

Generalization is necessary to the advancement of knowledge; but particularity is indispensable to the creations of the imagination.

The English Bible - a book which, if everything else in our language should perish, would alone suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power.