There is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness, in work. Were he never so benighted, forgetful of his high calling, there is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works: in idleness alone there is perpetual despair.

If a book comes from the heart, it will contrive to reach other hearts; all art and author-craft are of small amount to that.

Nine-tenths of the miseries and vices of mankind proceed from idleness.

If there be not a religious element in the relations of men, such relations are miserable and doomed to ruin.

This we take it is the grand characteristic of our age. By our skill in Mechanism, it has come to pass, that in the management ofexternal things we excel all other ages; while in whatever respects the pure moral nature, in true dignity of soul and character, we are perhaps inferior to most civilised ages.

Thought once awakened does not again slumber; unfolds itself into a System of Thought; grows, in man after man, generation after generation, - till its full stature is reached, and such System of Thought can grow no farther, but must give place to another.

Once the mind has been expanded by a big idea, it will never go back to its original state.