We with our lives are like islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest... But the trees also commingle their roots in the darkness underground.

Men are now proud of belonging to a conquering nation, and without a murmur they lay down their persons and their wealth, if by so doing they may fend off subjection.

The God of many men is little more than their court of appeal against the damnatory judgment passed on their failures by the opinion of the world.

The first thing the intellect does with an object is to class it along with something else. But any object that is infinitely important to us and awakens our devotion feels to us also as if it must be sui generis and unique. Probably a crab would be filled with a sense of personal outrage if it could hear us class it without ado or apology as a crustacean, and thus dispose of it. 'I am no such thing,' it would say; 'I am MYSELF, MYSELF alone.

The highest flights of charity, devotion, trust, patience, bravery to which the wings of human nature have spread themselves, have been flown for religious ideals.

The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.

Pretend what we may, the whole man within us is at work when we form our philosophical opinions.