Quote collection
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"Tom Hyde, the tinker, standing on the gallows, was asked if he had anything to say. "Tell the tailors," said he, "to remember to make a knot in their thread before they take the first stitch." His companion's prayer is forgotten."
"The movements of the eyes express the perpetual and unconscious courtesy of the parties."
"Poetry cannot breathe in the scholar's atmosphere."
"Hate can pardon more than love."
"A taste for the beautiful is most cultivated out of doors"
"I do not see why the schoolmaster should be taxed to support the priest, and not the priest the schoolmaster."
"For one that comes with a pencil to sketch or sing, a thousand come with an axe or rifle. What a coarse and imperfect use Indiansand hunters make of nature! No wonder that their race is so soon exterminated."
"We have not so good a right to hate any as our Friend."
"Faith, indeed, is all the reform that is needed; it is itself a reform."
"As for health, consider yourself well."
"If you would be chaste, you must be temperate."
"And now that we have returned to the desultory life of the plain, let us endeavor to import a little of that mountain grandeur into it. We will remember within what walls we lie, and understand that this level life too has its summit, and why from the mountain-top the deepest valleys have a tinge of blue; that there is elevation in every hour, as no part of the earth is so low that the heavens may not be seen from, and we have only to stand on the summit of our hour to command an uninterrupted horizon."
"The Library is a wilderness of books."
"As for the tenets of the Brahmans, we are not so much concerned to know what doctrines they held, as that they were held by any. We can tolerate all philosophies.... It is the attitude of these men, more than any communication which they make, that attracts us."
"What is the value of any political freedom, but as a means to moral freedom?"
"Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. Books, the oldest and the best, stand naturally and rightfully on the shelves of every cottage. They have no cause of their own to plead, but while they enlighten and sustain the reader his common sense will not refuse them. Their authors are a natural and irresistible aristocracy in every society, and, more than kings or emperors, exert an influence on mankind."
"Health requires this relaxation, this aimless life. This life in the present."
"I know that some will have hard thoughts of me, when they hear their Christ named beside my Buddha, yet I am sure that I am willing they should love their Christ more than my Buddha, for the love is the main thing, and I like him too."
"I have found all things thus far, persons and inanimate matter, elements and seasons, strangely adapted to my resources."
"As a man grows older, his ability to sit still and follow indoor occupations increases. He grows vespertinal in his habits as theevening of life approaches, till at last he comes forth only just before sundown, and gets all the walk that he requires in half an hour."