Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
People wish to be settled; only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them.
The machine unmakes the man. Now that the machine is so perfect, the engineer is nobody.
Good writing is a kind of skating which carries off the performer where he would not go.
Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.
It is very unhappy, but too late to be helped, the discovery we have made, that we exist
The whole secret of the teacher's force lies in the conviction that men are convertible.
If you act, you show character; if you sit still, you show it; if you sleep you show it.
The reason why men do not obey us, is because they see the mud at the bottom of our eye.
Nor count compartments of the floors, But mount to paradise By the stairway of surprise.
The best university that can be recommended to a man of ideas is the gauntlet of the mob.
The age of a woman doesn't mean a thing. The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles.
What school, college, or lecture bring men depends on what men bring to carry it home in.
We are as much informed of a writer's genius by what he selects as by what he originates.
Give no bounties: make equal laws: secure life and prosperity and you need not give alms.
Why has my motley diary no jokes? Because it is a soliloquy and every man is grave alone.
There is genius as well in virtue as in intellect. 'Tis the doctrine of faith over works.
The wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which perishes in the twisting.
There is no king or sovereign state That can fix a hero's rate; Each to all is venerable.
Proportion is almost impossible to human beings. There is no one who does not exaggerate.
People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.
The solitary knows the essence of the thought, the scholar in society only its fair face.
Wherever a man commits a crime, God finds a witness. Every secret crime has its reporter.
It makes a great difference in the force of a sentence, whether a man be behind it or no.
If you would know what nobody knows, read what everybody reads, just one year afterwards.
The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows.
Society is a wave. The wave moves onward, but the water of which it is composed does not.
The vulgar call good fortune that which really is produced by the calculations of genius.
In England every man you meet is some man's son; in America, he may be some man's father.
What is there of the divine in a load of brick? What ... in a barber shop? ... Much. All.
O friend, never strike sail to a fear! Come into port greatly, or sail with God the seas.
Those who live to the future must always appear selfish to those who live to the present.
The cannon will not suffer any other sound to be heard for miles and for years around it.
You will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it.
Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.
Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.
We do not quite forgive a giver. The hand that feeds us is in some danger of being bitten.
Men succeed when they realize that their failures are the preparation for their victories.
A poem is made up of thoughts, each of which filled the whole sky of the poet in its turn.
Books take their place according to their specific gravity as surely as potatoes in a tub.
What is originality? It is being one's self, and reporting accurately what we see and are.
The first thing a great person does is make us realize the insignificance of circumstance.
Is not, indeed, every man a student, and do not all things exist for the student's behoof?
Power obeys reality, and not appearances; power is according to quality, and not quantity.
Two sorts of writers possess genius: those who think, and those who cause others to think.
Who looks upon a river in a meditative hour and is not reminded of the flux of all things?
In all my lectures, I have taught one doctrine, namely, the infinitude of the private man.
Be not the slave of your own past - plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far.
Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.
It behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.