“After the first blush of sin comes its indifference; and from immoral it becomes, as it were, unmoral, and not quite unnecessary to that life which we have made.”

“It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?”

“If I should sell my forenoons and afternoons to society, as most appear to do, I am sure that for me there would be nothing left worth living for.”

“Those who have been bred in the school of politics fail now and always to face the facts.”

“It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil.”

“There is in my nature, methinks, a singular yearning toward all wildness.”

“The secret of achievement is to hold a picture of a successful outcome in the mind”

“This was that Earth of which we have heard, made out of Chaos and Old Night.”

“A traveller! I love his title. A traveler is to be reverenced as such. His profession is the best symbol of our life. Going from–toward; it is the history of every one of us.”

“Sometimes we are inclined to class those who are once-and-a-half witted with the half-witted, because we appreciate only a third part of their wit.”

“The poet writes the history of his own body.”

“If I were confined to a corner of a garret all my days, like a spider, the world would be just as large to me while I had my thoughts about me.”

“Philanthropy is. . . greatly overrated. A pain in the gut is not sympathy for the underprivileged, but the result of eating a green apple; the philanthropist gives to ease his own pain.”

“When it is time to die, let us not discover that we never lived.”

“The thoughtful man becomes a hermit in the thoroughfares of the marketplace.”

“There is a difference between eating and drinking for strength and from mere gluttony.”

“A man thinking or working will always be alone, let him be where he will.”

“Even the best things are not equal to their fame.”

“Never look back unless you are planning to go that way”

“It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience. But a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience.”

“My life is like a stroll upon the beach, as near to the ocean's edge as I can go.”

“The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise.”

“Cowards suffer, heroes enjoy.”

“Give me the poverty that enjoys true wealth.”