15 quotes
Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870)
Talent is that which is in a man's power; genius is that in whose power a man is.
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870)
One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870)
Toward no crimes have men shown themselves so cold-bloodedly cruel as in punishing differences in belief.
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870)
Puritanism, believing itself quick with the seed of religious liberty, laid, without knowing it, the egg of democracy.
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870)
Truly there is a tide in the affairs of men; but there is no gulf-stream setting forever in one direction.
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870)
There is no better ballast for keeping the mind steady on its keel, and saving it from all risk of crankiness, than business.
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870)
Sentiment is intellectualized emotion, — emotion precipitated, as it were, in pretty crystals by the fancy.
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870)
There is no work of genius which has not been the delight of mankind, no word of genius to which the human heart and soul have not sooner or later responded.
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870)
No man can produce great things who is not thoroughly sincere in dealing with himself.
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870)
From the summit of power men no longer turn their eyes upward, but begin to look about them. Aspiration sees only one side of every question; possession, many.
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870)
He who is firmly seated in authority soon learns to think security, and not progress, the highest lesson of statecraft.
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870)
If there are men who regret the Good Old Times, without too clear a notion of what they were, they should at least be thankful that we are rid of that misguided energy of faith which justifies conscience in making men unrelentingly cruel.
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870)
Simple as it seems, it was a great discovery that the key of knowledge could turn both ways, that it could open, as well as lock, the door of power to the many.
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870)
It was in making education not only common to all, but in some sense compulsory on all, that the destiny of the free republics of America was practically settled.
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870)