“A man's mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.”

“Your circumstances may be uncongenial, but they shall not long remain so if you but perceive an Ideal and strive to reach it.”

“Man's mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild.”

“A particular train of thought persisted in, be it good or bad, cannot fail to produce its results on the character and circumstances. A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances.”

“As he thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he remains.”

“The way to learn German, is, to read the same dozen pages over and over a hundred times, till you know every word and particle in them, and can pronounce and repeat them by heart.”

“A dilettantism in nature is barren and unworthy. A fop of fields is no better than his brother on Broadway.”

“Art is a jealous mistress; and if a man have a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture or philosophy, he makes a bad husband and an ill provider.”