Mistakes and errors are the discipline through which we advance.

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

Do anything rather than give yourself to reverie.

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.

I call that mind free which jealously guards its intellectual rights and powers, which calls no man master, which does not content itself with a passive or hereditary faith, which opens itself to light whencesoever it may come, which receives new truth as an angel from Heaven.

It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds. In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours.

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