Experience of actual fact either teaches fools or abolishes them.

The glory of a workman, still more of a master workman, that he does his work well, ought to be his most precious possession; like the honor of a soldier, dearer to him than life.

Man is, properly speaking, based upon hope, he has no other possession but hope; this world of his is emphatically the place of hope.

Might and right do differ frightfully from hour to hour, but then centuries to try it in, they are found to be identical.

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.

A vein of poetry exists in the hearts of all men.

Writing is a dreadful labor, yet not so dreadful as Idleness.