Quote collection
606 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"There is large difference between indolent impatience of labor and intellectual impatience of delay, large difference between leaving things unfinished because we have more to do or because we are satisfied with what we have done."
"You talk of the scythe of Time, and the tooth of Time: I tell you, Time is scytheless and toothless; it is we who gnaw like the worm - we who smite like the scythe. It is ourselves who abolish - ourselves who consume: we are the mildew, and the flame."
"The step between practical and theoretic science, is the step between the miner and the geologist, the apocathecary and the chemist."
"It does not matter what the whip is; it is none the less a whip, because you have cut thongs for it out of your own souls."
"Modern travelling is not travelling at all; it is merely being sent to a place, and very little different from becoming a parcel."
"The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world... to see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one."
"Conceit may puff a man up, but never prop him up."
"There is material enough in a single flower for the ornament of a score of cathedrals."
"Let every dawn be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close."
"There is no wealth but life. Life, including all its powers of love, of joy, and of admiration. That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest numbers of noble and happy human beings; that man is richest, who, having perfected the functions of his own life to the utmost, has also the widest helpful influence, both personal, and by means of his possessions, over the lives of others."
"There is no solemnity so deep, to a right-thinking creature, as that of dawn."
"In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes."
"A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money."
"Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together."
"Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery."
"I believe the first test of a truly great man is in his humility."
"I will not kill or hurt any living creature needlessly, nor destroy any beautiful thing, but will strive to save and comfort all gentle life, and guard and perfect all natural beauty upon the earth."
"The true end of education is not only to make the young learned, but to make them love learning; not only to make them industrious, but to make them love industry; not only to make them virtuous, but to make them love virtue; not only to make them just, but to make them hunger and thirst after justice."
"When we build ... let it not be for present delights nor for present use alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for, and let us think ... that a time is to come when these stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say as they look upon the labor, and the wrought substance of them, See! This our fathers did for us!"
"The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love colour the most."