To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.

A star is beautiful; it affords pleasure, not from what it is to do, or to give, but simply by being what it is. It befits the heavens; it has congruity with the mighty space in which it dwells. It has repose; no force disturbs its eternal peace. It has freedom; no obstruction lies between it and infinity.

All work is as seed sown; it grows and spreads, and sows itself anew.

History, as it lies at the root of all science, is also the first distinct product of man's spiritual nature, his earliest expression of what may be called thought.

Democracy will itself accomplish the salutary universal change from delusive to real, and make a new blessed world of us by and by.

Neither in tailoring nor in legislating does man proceed by mere accident.

There is no life of a man, faithfully recorded, but is a heroic poem of its sort, rhymed or unrhymed.