There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul.

The memory of an absent person shines in the deepest recesses of the heart, shining the more brightly the more wholly its object has vanished: a light on the horizon of the despairing, darkened spirit; a star gleaming in our inward night.

A library implies an act of faith which generations, still in darkness hid, sign in their night in witness of the dawn.

It is those books which a man possesses but does not read which constitute the most suspicious evidence against him.

It is a terrible thing to be happy! How pleased we are with it! How all-sufficient we think it! How, being in possession of the false aim of life, happiness, we forget the true aim, duty!

It is only barbarous nations who have a sudden growth after a victory

When a man understands the art of seeing, he can trace the spirit of an age and the features of a king even in the knocker on a door.