There is a majesty and mystery in nature, take her as you will. The essence of poetry comes breathing to a mind that feels from every province of her empire.

Respectable Professors of the Dismal Science.

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.

War is a quarrel between two thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle.

If Hero means sincere man, why may not every one of us be a Hero?

Contented saturnine human figures, a dozen or so of them, sitting around a large long table...Perfect equality is to be the rule; no rising or notice taken when anybody enters or leaves. Let the entering man take his place and pipe, without obligatory remarks; if he cannot smoke...let him at least affect to do so, and not ruffle the established stream of things.

Fame, we may understand, is no sure test of merit, but only a probability of such; it is an accident, not a property of man.