"Books are influential in proportion to their obscurity, provided that the obscurity be that of inexpressible Realities. The Bible is the most obscure book in the world. He must be a great fool who thinks he understands the plainest chapter of it."

"The impurity of ignorance is in none so manifest as in the devout; for they act on their ignorance, and fill themselves and others with miserable scruples and hard thoughts of God, and are as apt to call good evil as other men are to call evil good."

"The modern Agnostic improves upon the ancient by adding "I don't care" to "I don't know"."

"A man may read Plato without clearly comprehending much of what he means. He cannot read him without becoming, in some degree, a changed man."

"The ardour chills us which we do not share."

"One fool will deny more truth in half an hour than a wise man can prove in seven years."

"God is the only reality, and we are real only so far as we are in His order, and He is in us."

"Ther are not two sides to any question that really concerns a man, but only one, and this side only a fool can fail to see if he tries."

"If you try to simplify or pare off the superfluous from the minds and speech of most men, you will find that nothing is left. There is no simplicity in them, for there is no truth; truth and simplicity being, as Aquinas says, the same thing."

"Science is a line, art a superficies, and life, or the knowledge of God, a solid."

"The midge's wing beats to and fro A thousand times ere one can utter "O!""

"All reasoning ends in an appeal to self-evidence."

"It is one thing to be blind, and another to be in darkness."

"The flower of olden sanctities."

"Having my law the seventh time disobey'd, I struck him, and dismiss'd With hard words and unkiss'd, —His Mother, who was patient, being dead."

"For want of me the world’s course will not fail; When all its work is done the lie shall rot; The truth is great and shall prevail When none cares whether it prevail or not."

"To have nought Is to have all things without care or thought!"

"Creation differs from subsistence only as the first leap of a fountain differs from its continuance."

"The sunshine dreaming upon Salmon’s height Is not so sweet and white As the most heretofore sin-spotted Soul That darts to its delight Straight from the absolution of a faithful fight."

"Life is not life at all without delight."

"None thrives for long upon the happiest dream."

"Ninety-nine men in a hundred are natural men, that is, beasts of prey; and it is mere insanity, in business matters, to deal with a stranger upon any other assumption than that he is a natural man, though we should veil our knowledge of the actual fact by a courteous recognition in words and manners of his better possibilities."

"The bliss which woman's charms bespeak, "I've sought in many, found in none!" "In many 'tis in vain you seek "What can be found in only one."

"A woman is a foreign land."

"She is both heaven and the way."

"Without his knowledge he was won; Against his nature kept devout; She'll never tell him how 'twas done, And he will never find it out. If, sudden, he suspects her wiles, And hears her forging chain and trap, And looks, she sits in simple smiles, Her two hands lying in her lap. Her secret (privilege of the Bard, Whose fancy is of either sex), Is mine; but let the darkness guard Myst'ries that light would more perplex!"

"I saw you take his kiss!" "'Tis true." "O, modesty!" "'Twas strictly kept: He thought me asleep; at least, I knew He thought I thought he thought I slept."

"I vowed unvarying faith, and she To whom in full I pay that vow, Rewards me with variety Which men who change can never know."

"The beauty in her lover's eyes Was admiration of her own."

"The moods of love are like the wind, And none know whence or why they rise."

"I drew my bride, beneath the moon, Across my threshold; happy hour! But, ah, the walk that afternoon We saw the water-flags in flower!"

"Bright looks reply, approving so Beauty's elixir vitæ, praise."

"How amiable and innocent Her pleasure in her power to charm!"

"Ah, wasteful woman, she who may On her sweet self set her own price, Knowing man cannot choose but pay, How has she cheapen'd paradise; How given for nought her priceless gift, How spoil'd the bread and spill'd the wine, Which, spent with due, respective thrift, Had made brutes men, and men divine."

"What seems to us for us is true. The planet has no proper light, And yet when Venus is in view, No primal star is half so bright."

"Why, having won her, do I woo? Because her spirit's vestal grace Provokes me always to pursue, But, spirit-like, eludes embrace.[…] Because though free of the outer court I am, this Temple keeps its shrine Sacred to Heaven; because, in short, She's not and never can be mine."

"Strong passions mean weak will, and he Who truly knows the strength and bliss Which are in love, will own with me No passion but a virtue 'tis."

"The way is long and dreary, The path is bleak and bare; Our feet are worn and weary, But we will not despair; More weary was Thy burden, More desolate Thy ways, O Lamb of God, who takest The sin of the world away, Have mercy upon us."

"Rejoice, oh! grieving heart, The hours fly past; With each some sorrow dies, With each some shadow flies, Until at last The red dawn in the east Bids weary night depart, And pain is past."

"I do not ask my cross to understand My way to see: Better in darkness just to feel Thy hand And follow Thee."

"Kind hearts are here; yet would the tenderest one Have limits to its mercy; God has none."

"If thou couldst trust, poor soul! In Him who rules the whole, Thou wouldst find peace and rest; Wisdom and sight are well, but trust is best."

"Heaven unites again the links that Earth has broken! For on Earth so much is needed, but in Heaven Love is all!"

"Love wakes men, once a lifetime each; They lift their heavy lids, and look; And, lo, what one sweet page can teach, They read with joy, then shut the book."

"How light the touches are that kiss The music from the chords of life!"

"Toleration, as it is now widely preached, may be a very one-sided bargain. It will not do to let falsehood and moral idiocy say to truth and honesty, "I will tolerate you if you will tolerate me.""

"Shine, ye stars of heaven, On a world of pain! See old Time destroying All our hoarded gain; All our sweetest flowers, Every stately shrine, All our hard-earned glory, Every dream divine! Shine, ye stare of heaven, On the rolling years! See how Time, consoling, Dries the saddest tears, Bids the darkest storm-clouds Pass in gentle rain, While upspring in glory Flowers and dreams again!"

"Kind souls, you wonder why, love you, When you, you wonder why, love none. We love, Fool, for the good we do, Not that which unto us is done!"

"Grant me the power of saying things Too simple and too sweet for words!"