A man is a god in ruins.
Love and you shall be loved. All love is mathematically just, as much as the two sides of an algebraic equation.
Great people are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force, that thoughts rule the world.
Sculpture and painting have the effect of teaching us manners and abolishing hurry.
Traveling is a fool’s paradise. Our first journeys discover to us the indifference of places.
What is so great as friendship, let us carry with what grandeur of spirit we can. Let us be silent, — so we may hear the whisper of the gods. Let us not interfere. Who set you to cast about what you should say to the select souls, or how to say any thing to such? No matter how ingenious, no matter how graceful and bland. There are innumerable degrees of folly and wisdom, and for you to say aught is to be frivolous. Wait, and thy heart shall speak. Wait until the necessary and everlasting overpowers you, until day and night avail themselves of your lips. The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.
Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker upon the planet. Then all things are at risk.
The measure of a master is his success in bringing all men around to his opinion twenty years later.
It is not given to us to peer into the mysteries of the future. Still, I avow my hope and faith, sure and inviolate, that in the days to come the British and American peoples will for their own safety and for the good of all walk together side by side in majesty, in justice, and in peace.
You and I are essentially infinite choice-makers. In every moment of our existence, we are in that field of all possibilities where we have access to an infinity of choices.
The most luxurious possession, the richest treasure anybody has, is his personal dignity.
My dear friend, clear your mind of cant [excessive thought]. You may talk as other people do: you may say to a man, Sir, I am your most humble servant. You are not his most humble servant. You may say, These are bad times; it is a melancholy thing to be reserved to such times. You don’t mind the times … You may talk in this manner; it is a mode of talking in Society; but don’t think foolishly.
It isn’t making mistakes that’s critical; it’s correcting them and getting on with the principal task.
Thinking will not overcome fear but action will.
To say that a man is your Friend, means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy. Most contemplate only what would be the accidental and trifling advantages of Friendship, as that the Friend can assist in time of need by his substance, or his influence, or his counsel. Even the utmost goodwill and harmony and practical kindness are not sufficient for Friendship, for Friends do not live in harmony merely, as some say, but in melody.
Flow with whatever may happen, and let your mind be free: Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.
Fidelity has enfranchised slaves, and adopted servants to be sons.
A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.
We must have infinite faith in each other. If we have not, we must never let it leak out that we have not.
The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.
Men love to wonder and that is the seed of our science.
For many years I was a self-appointed inspector of snowstorms and rainstorms and did my duty faithfully, though I never received payment for it.
