It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
Courtesy Life be not so short but that there is always time for courtesy.
Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind.
The city is recruited from the country.
I know of no such unquestionable badge and ensign of a sovereign mind as that of tenacity of purpose.
Excess in Apparel is another costly Folly. The very Trimming of the vain World would cloath all the naked one.
The mouth obeys poorly when the heart murmurs.
Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.
Is it not rather what we expect in men, that they should have numerous strands of experience lying side by side and never compare them with each other?
Nothing is more disgusting than the crowing about liberty by slaves, as most men are, and the flippant mistaking for freedom of some paper preamble like a Declaration of Independence, or the statute right to vote, by those who have never dared to think or to act.
The soul’s emphasis is always right.
Watch what you say, and whatever you say, practice it.
If man has good corn, or wood, or boards, or pigs to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles, or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad, hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods.
As Puppets are to Men, and Babies to Children, so is Man’s Workmanship to God’s: We are the Picture, he the Reality.
This is no time for ease and comfort. It is the time to dare and endure.
Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.
Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.
In a man’s letters you know, Madam, his soul lies naked, his letters are only the mirror of his breast, whatever passes within him is shown undisguised in its natural process. Nothing is inverted, nothing distorted, you see systems in their elements, you discover actions in their motives.
As Love ought to bring them together, so it is the best Way to keep them well together.
Avoid flatterers, for they are thieves in disguise.
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
