Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime.

The true test of civilization is, not the census, nor the size of the cities, nor the crops - no, but the kind of man the country turns out.

The profit of books is according to the sensibility of the reader. The profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine until an equal mind and heart finds and publishes it.

Too busy with the crowded hour to fear to live or die.

The imagination is not a talent of some men but is the health of every man.

Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.

Every book is a quotation; and every house is a quotation out of all forests and mines and stone-quarries; and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

The music that can deepest reach, And cure all ill, is cordial speech.

Never read any book that is not a year old.

In fact, it is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent.

A man builds a fine house; and now he has a master, and a task for life: he is to furnish, watch, show it, and keep it in repair, the rest of his days.

Every artist was first an amateur.

Though love repine, and reason chafe, There came a voice without reply, - "'T is man's perdition to be safe When for the truth he ought to die."

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

A great man quotes bravely, and will not draw on his invention when his memory serves him with a word just as good.

You can never do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

The young men were born with knives in their brain, a tendency to introversion, self-dissection, anatomizing of motives.

Bad times have a scientific value. [...] We learn geology the morning after the earthquake, on ghastly diagrams of cloven mountains, upheaved plains, and the dry bed of the sea.

Wilt thou seal up the avenues of ill? Pay every debt as if God wrote the bill.

Wealth begins in a tight roof that keeps the rain and wind out; in a good pump that yields you plenty of sweet water; in two suits of clothes, so to change your dress when you are wet; in dry sticks to burn; in a good double-wick lamp; and three meals; in a horse, or a locomotive, to cross the land; in a boat to cross the sea; in tools to work with; in books to read; and so, in giving, on all sides, by tolls and auxiliaries, the greatest possible extension to our powers, as if it added feet, and hands, and eyes, and blood, length to the day, and knowledge, and good-will.Wealth begins with these articles of necessity.

Fine manners need the support of fine manners in others, and this is a gift interred only by the self.

The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.

So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When Duty whispers low, Thou must, The youth replies, I can.

In different hours, a man represents each of several of his ancestors, as if there were seven or eight of us rolled up in each man's skin, - seven or eight ancestors at least, - and they constitute the variety of notes for that new piece of music which his life is.

Things are pretty, graceful, rich, elegant, handsome, but, until they speak to the imagination, not yet beautiful.

I have been quoted as saying captious things about travel; but I mean to do justice. I think, there is a restlessness in our people, which argues want of character. All educated Americans, first or last, go to Europe; - perhaps, because it is their mental home, as the invalid habits of this country might suggest. An eminent teacher of girls said, "the idea of a girl's education, is, whatever qualifies them for going to Europe." Can we never extract this tape-worm of Europe from the brain of our countrymen?

God said, I am tired of kings, I suffer them no more; Up to my ear the morning brings The outrage of the poor.

I find the Englishman to be him of all men who stands firmest in his shoes. They have in themselves what they value in their horses, - mettle and bottom.

Make yourself necessary to somebody. Do not make life hard to any.

Deep in the man sits fast his fate To mould his fortunes, mean or great.

The world is his, who has money to go over it.

The highest compact we can make with our fellow, is, - "Let there be truth between us two forevermore".

Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances...Strong men believe in cause and effect.

England's genius filled all measure Of heart and soul, of strength and pleasure, Gave to the mind its emperor, And life was larger than before: Nor sequent centuries could hit Orbit and sum of Shakespeare's wit. The men who lived with him became Poets, for the air was fame.

Nature magically suits the man to his fortunes, by making these the fruit of his character.

If I could put my hand on the north star, would it be as beautiful? The sea is lovely, but when we bathe in it, the beauty forsakes all the near water. For the imagination and senses cannot be gratified at the same time.

Solitude, the safeguard of mediocrity, is to genius the stern friend.

To-day unbind the captive, So only are ye unbound; Lift up a people from the dust, Trump of their rescue, sound!

A creative economy is the fuel of magnificence.

Our chief want in life, is somebody who shall make us do what we can.

For the prevision is allied Unto the thing so signified; Or say, the foresight that awaits Is the same Genius that creates.

Art is a jealous mistress.

Tis very certain that each man carries in his eye the exact indication of his rank in the immense scale of men, and we are always learning to read it. A complete man should need no auxiliaries to his personal presence.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

Nor mourn the unalterable Days That Genius goes and Folly stays.

That what we seek we shall find; what we flee from flees from us.

All is riddle, and the key to a riddle is another riddle.

I am not much an advocate for travelling, and I observe that men run away to other countries because they are not good in their own, and run back to their own because they pass for nothing in the new places. For the most part, only the light characters travel. Who are you that have no task to keep you at home? I have been quoted as saying captious things about travel; but I mean to do justice. .... He that does not fill a place at home, cannot abroad. He only goes there to hide his insignificance in a larger crowd. You do not think you will find anything there which you have not seen at home? The stuff of all countries is just the same. Do you suppose there is any country where they do not scald milk-pans, and swaddle the infants, and burn the brushwood, and broil the fish? What is true anywhere is true everywhere. And let him go where he will, he can only find so much beauty or worth as he carries.

None shall rule but the humble, And none but Toil shall have.

You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity.