Man is, and was always, a block-head and dullard; much readier to feel and digest, than to think and consider.

O thou that pinest in the imprisonment of the Actual, and criest bitterly to the gods for a kingdom wherein to rule and create, know this for a truth: the thing thou seekest is already here, "here or nowhere," couldst thou only see.

The true university of these days is a collection of books.

The authentic insight and experience of any human soul, were it but insight and experience in hewing of wood and drawing of water, is real knowledge, a real possession and acquirement.

Generations are as the days of toilsome mankind; death and birth are the vesper and the matin bells that summon mankind to sleep and to rise refreshed for new advancement. What the father has made, the son can make and enjoy; but has also work of his own appointed him. Thus all things wax and roll onwards: arts, establishments, opinions, nothing is ever completed, but ever completing.

Lives the man that can figure a naked Duke of Windlestraw addressing a naked House of Lords?

Youth is to all the glad season of life; but often only by what it hopes, not by what it attains, or what it escapes.