In our nature, however, there is a provision, alike marvelous and merciful, that the sufferer should never know the intensity of what he endures by its present torture, but chiefly by the pang that ra...
It contributes greatly towards a man's moral and intellectual health, to be brought into habits of companionship with individuals unlike himself, who care little for his pursuits, and whose sphere and...
There are many things in this world that a child must not ask about.
Do anything, save to lie down and die!
All brave men love for he only is brave who has affections to fight for, whether in the daily battle of life, or in physical contests.
Our most intimate friend is not he to whom we show the worst, but the best of our nature.
It was one of those moments—which sometimes occur only at the interval of years—when a man's moral aspect is faithfully revealed to his mind's eye. Not improbably, he had never before viewed himself a...
I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.[, Oct. 10, 1842]
Cannot you conceive that another man may wish well to the world and struggle for its good on some other plan than precisely that which you have laid down?
Easy reading is damn hard writing.
What other dungeon is so dark as one's own heart! What jailer so in exorable as one's self!
Chillingworth was a striking evidence of man's faculty of transforming himself into a devil, if he will only, for a reasonable space of time, undertake a devil's office.
The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may not be going to prove one's self a fool; the truest heroism is to resist the doubt; and the profoundest wisdom, to know when it ought...
Happiness is a butterfly which when pursued is always beyond our grasp but if you will sit down quietly may alight upon you.
A hero cannot be a hero unless in a heroic world.
Nothing gives a sadder sense of decay than this loss or suspension of the power to deal with unaccustomed things, and to keep up with the swiftness of the passing moment. [Speaking of self-posed isola...
Oh, for the years I have not lived, but only dreamed of living.
There was a listlessness in his gait, as if he saw no reason for taking one step further, nor felt any desire to do so, but would have been glad, could he be glad of anything, to fling himself down at...
Technologies of easy travel give us wings; they annihilate the toil and dust of pilgrimage; they spiritualize travel! Transition being so facile, what can be any man’s inducement to tarry in one spot?...
Strength is incomprehensible by weakness, and, therefore, the more terrible.