A background of wrath, which can be stirred up to the murderous infernal pitch, does lie in every man.

Of all the things which man can do or make here below, by far the most momentous, wonderful, and worthy are the things we call books.

In this world there is one godlike thing, the essence of all that was or ever will be of godlike in this world: the veneration done to Human Worth by the hearts of men.

The true epic of our times is not "Arm's and the Man," but "Tools and the Man"--an infinitely wider kind of epic.

To say that we have a clear conscience is to utter a solecism; had we never sinned we should have had no conscience. Were defeat unknown, neither would victory be celebrated by songs of triumph.

Fame, we may understand, is no sure test of merit, but only a probability of such: it is an accident, not a property, of a man; like light, it can give little or nothing, but at most may show what is given.

Nature is the time-vesture of God that reveals Him to the wise, and hides him from the foolish.