"To view an object in the proper light we must stand away from it. The study of the classical literatures gives the aloofness which cultivates insight. In learning to live with peoples and civilizations that have long ceased to be alive, we gain a vantage point, acquire an enlargement and elevation of thought, which enable us to study with a more impartial and liberal mind the condition of the society around us."

"Rules of grammar can not give us a mastery of language, rules of rhetoric can not make us eloquent, rules of conduct can not make us good."

"Let not what thou canst not prevent, though it be the ruin of thy home or country, draw thee from thy proper work."

"Education would be a divine thing, if it did nothing more than help us to think and love great thoughts instead of little thoughts."

"They who can no longer unlearn have lost the power to learn."

"What matter that the man stands for much I cannot love—the moment he touches the realms of truth he enters my world and is my friend."

"If thou hast sought happiness and missed it, but hast found wisdom instead, thou art fortunate."

"Those subjects have the greatest educational value, which are richest in incentives to the noblest self-activity."

"The weak, when they have authority, surround themselves with the weak. It is, indeed, a vice of rulers that men who have exceptional ability and worth are offensive to them, since they whose greatness is due to their position find it difficult to love those whom inner power makes great."

"The exercise of authority is odious, and they who know how to govern, leave it in abeyance as much as possible."

"There are faults which show heart and win hearts, while the virtue in which there is no love, repels."

"The study of law is valuable as a mental discipline, but the practice of pleading tends to make one petty, formal, and insincere. To be driven to look to legality rather than to equity blurs the view of truth and justice."

"Liberty is more precious than money or office; and we should be vigilant lest we purchase wealth or place at the price of inner freedom."

"Obedience is not servility. On the contrary the servile are never rightly obedient."

"Have as little suspicion as possible and conceal that."

"Make thyself perfect; others, happy."

"If thou wouldst be implacable, be so with thyself."

"We neglect the opportunities which are always present, and imagine that if those that are rare were offered, we should put them to good use. Thus we waste life waiting for what if it came we should be unprepared for."

"When we have not the strength or the courage to grasp a new truth, we persuade ourselves that it is not a truth at all."

"The zest of life lies in right doing, not in the garnered harvest."

"It is more profitable to be mindful of our own faults than of those of our age."

"Faith, like love, unites; opinion, like hate, separates."

"If a state should pass laws forbidding its citizens to become wise and holy, it would be made a byword for all time. But this, in effect, is what our commercial, social, and political systems do. They compel the sacrifice of mental and moral power to money and dissipation."

"O brave youth, how good for thee it were couldst thou be made to understand how infinitely precious are thy school years—years when thou hast leisure to grow, when new worlds break in upon thee, and thou fashionest thy being in the light of the ideals of truth and goodness and beauty! If now thou dost not fit thyself to become free and whole, thou shalt, when the doors of this fair mother-house of the mind, close behind thee, be driven into ways that lead to bondage, be compelled to do that which cripples and dwarfs; for the work whereby men gain a livelihood involves mental and moral mutilation, unless it be done in the spirit of religion and culture. Ah! well for thee, canst thou learn while yet there is time that it will profit thee nothing to become the possessor of millions, if the price thou payest is thy manhood."

"If we attempt to sink the soul in matter, its light is quenched."

"They who no longer believe in principles still proclaim them, to conceal, both from themselves and others, the selfishness of the motives by which they are dominated."

"The best book is but the record of the best life."

"They who truly know have had to unlearn hardly less than they have had to learn."

"Love finds us young and keeps us so: immortal himself, he permits not age to enter the hearts where he reigns."

"As our power over others increases, we become less free; for to retain it, we must make ourselves its servants."

"Beauty least adorned is most adorned"

"The narrow-minded and petty sticklers for the formalities which hedge rank and office are the true vulgarians, however observant they be of etiquette."

"It is not difficult to grasp and express thoughts that float on the stream of current opinion: but to think and rightly utter what is permanently true and interesting, what shall appeal to the best minds a thousand years hence, as it appeals to them to-day,—this is the work of genius."

"The doctrine of the utter vanity of life is a doctrine of despair, and life is hope."

"The teacher does best, not when he explains, but when he impels his pupils to seek themselves the explanation."

"The world is a mirror into which we look, and see our own image."

"We may outgrow the things of children, without acquiring sense and relish for those which become a man."

"The genius is childlike. Like children he looks into the world as into a new creation and finds there a perennial source of wonder and delight."

"Drunkards and sensualists have become heroes and saints; but sluggards have never risen to the significance and worth of human beings. Sloth enfeebles the root of life, and degrades more surely, if less swiftly, than the sins of passion."

"If thou need money, get it in an honest way—by keeping books, if thou wilt, but not by writing books."

"The writers who accomplish most are those who compel thought on the highest and most profoundly interesting subjects."

"In our thrifty populations of merchants, manufacturers, politicians, and professional men, there is little sense for beauty, little pure thought, little genuine culture; but they are prosperous and self-satisfied."

"To clothe truth in fitting words is to feel a satisfaction like that which comes of doing good deeds."

"The important thing is how we know, not what or how much."

"Friends humor and flatter us, they steal our time, they encourage our love of ease, they make us content with ourselves, they are the foes of our virtue and our glory."

"As the visit of one we love makes the whole day pleasant, so is it illumined and made fair by a brave and beautiful thought."