“But man's capacities have never been measured; nor are we to judge of what he can do by any precedents, so little have been tried.”

“I could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated me as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up.”

“Man is the artificer of his own happiness.”

“As long as possible live free and uncommitted.”

“Every man is the builder of a temple called his body.”

“Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.”

“Let every one mind his own business, and endeavor to be what he was made.”

“Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.”

“No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof.”

“In my opinion, the sun was made to light worthier toil than this.”

“We should come home from far, from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day, with new experience and character.”

“Age is no better, hardly so well, qualified for an instructor as youth, for it has not profited so much as it has lost.”

“For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever.”

“This whole earth in which we inhabit is but a point is space.”

“But lo! men have become the tools of their tools.”

“Follow your genius closely enough, and it will not fail to show you a fresh prospect every hour.”

“It is remarkable how long men will believe in the bottomlessness of a pond without taking the trouble to sound it.”

“Readers are plentiful; thinkers are rare”

“Some men fish all their lives without knowing it is not really the fish they are after.”

“There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers.”

“I silently smiled at my incessant good fortune.”

“Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.”

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.”

“The perception of beauty is a moral test.”