I call that mind free which protects itself against the usurpations of society, and which does not cower to human opinion: Which refuses to be the slave or tool of the many or of the few, and guards its empire over itself as nobler than the empire of the world.

The sin that now rises to memory as your bosom sin, let this first of all be withstood and mastered. Oppose it instantly by a detestation of it, by a firm will to conquer it, by reflection, by reason, and by prayer.

God be thanked for books; they are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages.

It feeds and grows on the blood which it sheds. The passions , from which it springs, gain strength and fury from indulgence.

Influence is to be measured, not by the extent of surface it covers, but by its kind.

All noble enthusiasms pass through a feverish stage, and grow wiser and more serene

A man might pass for insane who should see things as they are.