“Do something everyday for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.”

“There can be no final truth in ethics any more than in physics, until the last man has had his experience and said his say.”

“The best argument I know for an immortal life is the existence of a man who deserves one.”

“The faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character, and will... An education which should improve this faculty would be the education par excellence.”

“Time itself comes in drops.”

“Because this age and the next ageEngender in the ditch,No man can know a happy manFrom any passing wretch,If Folly link with EleganceNo man knows which is which.”

“Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she laid an asteroid.”

“The highest perfection of politeness is only a beautiful edifice, built, from the base to the dome, of ungraceful and gilded forms of charitable and unselfish lying.”