Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
What sort of philosophers are we, who know absolutely nothing of the origin and destiny of cats?
Alas! the culture of an Irishman is an enterprise to be undertaken with a sort of moral bog hoe.
All change is a miracle to contemplate, but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant.
Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?
We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke strops our vice.
It is the art of mankind to polish the world, and every one who works is scrubbing in some part.
The fishermen say that the "thundering of the pond" scares the fishes and prevents their biting.
I am still a learner, not a teacher, feeding somewhat omnivorously, browsing both stalk & leaves
With all your science can you tell me how it is, and when it is, that light comes into the soul?
It is childish to rest in the discovery of mere coincidences, or of partial and extraneous laws.
I have now a library of nearly nine hundred volumes, over seven hundred of which I wrote myself.
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.
A man might well pray that he may not taboo or curse any portion of nature by being buried in it.
Books can only reveal us to ourselves, and as often as they do us this service we lay them aside.
Nature is doing her best each moment to make us well. Why, nature is but another name for health.
I know a good woman who thinks that her son lost his life because he took to drinking water only.
Staying in the house breeds a sort of insanity always. Every house is, in this sense, a hospital.
I will not allow mere names to make distinctions for me, but still see men in herds for all them.
In the unbending of the arm to do the deed there is experience worth all the maxims in the world.
I say beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.
It is too late to be studying Hebrew; it is more important to understand even the slang of today.
In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high.
Be not anxious to avoid poverty. In this way the wealth of the universe may be securely invested.
In winter we lead a more inward life. Our hearts are warm and cheery, like cottages under drifts.
Each thought that is welcomed and recorded is a nest egg, by the side of which more will be laid.
Cultivate the habit of early rising. It is unwise to keep the head long on a level with the feet.
I do not judge men by anything they can do. Their greatest deed is the impression they make on me.
To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning.
For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever.
In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to society.
The silence sings. It is musical. I remember a night when it was audible. I heard the unspeakable.
Why do you ever mend your clothes, unless that, wearing them, you may mend your ways. Let us sing.
There should always be some flowering and maturing of the fruits of nature in the cooking process.
If I ever see more clearly at one time than at another, the medium through which I see is clearer.
I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.
The boy gathers materials for a temple, and then when he is thirty, concludes to build a woodshed.
We find it difficult to choose our direction because it does not yet exist distinctly in our idea.
Time is like a handful of sand - the tighter you grasp it, the faster it runs through your fingers.
Let Harlequin be taken with a fit of the colic, and his trappings will have to serve that mood too.
The volatile truth of our words should continually betray the inadequacy of the residual statement.
We have reason to be grateful for celestial phenomena, for they chiefly answer to the ideal in man.
The richest gifts we can bestow are the least marketable. We hate the kindness which we understand.
All the events which make the annals of the nations are but the shadows of our private experiences.
But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon plowed into the soil for compost.
It is a surprising and memorable, as well as valuable experience, to be lost in the woods any time.
I would give all the wealth of the world, and all the deeds of all the heroes, for one true vision.
Nature abhors a vacuum, and if I can only walk with sufficient carelessness I am sure to be filled.
Surely the writer is to address a world of laborers, and such therefore must be his own discipline.
We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers.
There is no ill which may not be dissipated, like the dark, if you let in a stronger light upon it.