"I wish that friendship should have feet,..." - Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson

“I read the other day some verses written by an eminent painter which were original and not conventional. The soul always hears an admonition in such lines, let the subject be what it may. The sentiment they instil is of more value than any thought they may contain. To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, - that is genius.”

“Men wish to be saved from the mischiefs of their vices, but not from their vices.”

“The gift, to be true, must be the flowing of the giver unto me, correspondent to my flowing unto him.”

“We walk alone in the world. Friends, such as we desire, are dreams and fables.”

“As the years progress one increasingly realises the importance of friendship and human solidarity. And if a 90-year-old may offer some unsolicited advice on this occasion, it would be that you, irrespective of your age, should place human solidarity, the concern for the other, at the centre of the values by which you live.”

“Here and there, human nature may be great in times of trial, but generally speaking it is its weakness and not its strength that appears in a sick chamber; it is selfishness and impatience rather than generosity and fortitude, that one hears of. There is so little real friendship in the world! – and unfortunately' (speaking low and tremulously) 'there are so many who forget to think seriously till it is almost too late.”

“Portable property is happiness in a pocketbook.”

“I believe humility is a virtue, but I prefer not to use it unless it is absolutely necessary.”

“Bridges would not be safer if only people who knew the proper definition of a real number were allowed to design them.”