» Americans cannot realize how many chances for mental improvement they lose by their inveterate habit of keeping six conversations when there are twelve in the room.
» The happiness of most people we know is not ruined by great catastrophes or fatal errors, but by the repetition of slowly destructive little things.
» The history of the past interests us only in so far as it illuminates the history of the present.
» Ideas are the roots of creation.
» Life is a succession of lessons enforced by immediate reward, or, oftener, by immediate chastisement.
» All serious conversations gravitate towards philosophy.