It is a mathematical fact that the casting of this pebble from my hand alters the centre of gravity of the universe.

No age seemed the age of romance to itself.

The end of Man is an Action, and not a Thought, though it were the noblest?

Sarcasm I now see to be, in general, the language of the devil; for which reason I have long since as good as renounced it.

Stern accuracy in inquiring, bold imagination in describing, these are the cogs on which history soars or flutters and wobbles.

Venerable to me is the hard hand,--crooked, coarse,--wherein, notwithstanding, lies a cunning virtue, indispensably royal as of the sceptre of the planet.

What I loved in the man was his health, his unity with himself; all people and all things seemed to find their quite peaceable adjustment with him, not a proud domineering one, as after doubtful contest, but a spontaneous-looking peaceable, even humble one.