We are reformers in spring and summer; in autumn and winter, we stand by the old; reformers in the morning, conservers at night.

The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is, because man is disunited with himself.

I chide society, I embrace solitude, and yet I am not so ungrateful as not to see the wise, the lovely and the noble-minded, as from time to time they pass my gate.

People only see what they are prepared to see.

Every really able man, in whatever direction he work,—a man of large affairs, an inventor, a statesman, an orator, a poet, a painter,—if you talk sincerely with him, considers his work, however much admired, as far short of what it should be.

We do what we must, and call it by the best names we can.

By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote.

‘This not important how the hero does this or that, but what he is.

Every genuine work of art has as much reason for being as the earth and the sun.

The one thing which we seek with insatiable desire is to forget ourselves, to be surprised out of our propriety, to lose our sempiternal memory and to do something without knowing how or why; in short to draw a new circle.

Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

Our faith comes in moments; our vice is habitual.

I hate quotations. Tell me what you know. 

Valor consists in the power of self recovery.

When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.

What you are comes to you.

Our strength grows out of our weakness.

A great man is always willing to be little.

The soul active sees absolute truth; and utters truth, or creates.

Better to know a few things which are good and necessary than many things which are useless and mediocre.

Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.

Be silly. Be honest. Be kind.