There is no law, no principle, based on past practice, which may not be overthrown in a moment, by the arising of a new condition, or the invention of a new material; and the most rational, if not the only, mode of averting the danger of an utter dissolution of all that is systematic and consistent in our practice, or of ancient authority in our judgment, is to cease, for a little while, our endeavours to deal with the multiplying host of particular abuses, restraints, or requirements; and endeavour to determine, as the guides of every effort, some constant, general, and irrefragable laws of right — laws, which based upon man’s nature, not upon his knowledge, may possess so far the unchangeableness of the one, as that neither the increase nor imperfection of the other may be able to assault or invalidate them.

God made the earth, but the earth had no base and so under the earth he made an angel. But the angel had no base and so under the angel’s feet he made a crag of ruby. But the crag had no base and so under the crag he made a bull endowed with four thousand eyes, ears, nostrils, mouths, tongues, and feet. But the bull had no base and so under the bull he made a fish named Bahamut, and under the fish he put water, and under the water he put darkness, and beyond this men’s knowledge does not reach.

Few words have more than one literal and serviceable meaning, however many metaphorical, derivative, related, or even unrelated, meanings lexicographers may think it worth while to gather from all sorts and conditions of men, with which to bloat their absurd and misleading dictionaries. This actual and serviceable meaning–not always determined by derivation, and seldom by popular usage–is the one affirmed, according to his light, by the author of this little manual of solecisms. Narrow etymons of the mere scholar and loose locutions of the ignorant are alike denied a standing.

Say not ‘This is the truth’ but
‘So it seems to me to be
as I now see the things I think I see.’

There are eyes everywhere. There is no blind spot left.“

"But what shall we dream of when everything becomes visible?”

“We’ll dream of being blind.

When it came to such a pitch as this, she was not able to refrain from a start, or a heavy sigh, or even from walking about the room for a few seconds; and the only source whence any thing like consolation or composure could be drawn, was in the resolution of her own better conduct, and the hope that, however inferior in spirit and gaiety might be the following and every future winter of her life to the past, it would yet find her more rational, more acquainted with herself, and leave her less to regret when it were gone.

Almost everything that men have said best has been said in Greek. There are, I know, other languages, but they are petrified, or have yet to be born.

A man who had been in motion since eight o’clock in the morning, and might now have been still — who had been long talking, and might have been silent — who had been in more than one crowd, and might have been alone! Such a man to quit the tranquility and independence of his own fireside, and on the evening of a cold sleety April day rush out again into the world!

Nailed to the beloved body like a slave to a cross, I have learned some secrets of life which are now dimmed in my memory by the operation of that same law which ordains that the convalescent, once cured, ceases to understand the mysterious truths laid bare by illness, and that the prisoner, set free, forgets his torture, or the conqueror, his triumph passed, forgets his glory.

Riches are held in esteem, but may be enjoyed by the worst as well as the best of men; Glory is a thing deserving of respect, but unstable; Beauty is a prize that men fight to obtain, but, once obtained, is of little continuance; Health is precious, but easily impaired; Strength is a thing desirable, but apt to be the prey of disease and old age. (And, in general, let any man who values himself upon strength of body know that he makes a great mistake; for what indeed is any proportion of human strength compared to that of other animals, such as elephants and bulls and lions?)

But learning alone, of all things in our possession, is immortal and divine. For reason alone grows youthful by age; and time, which decays all other things before it carries them away with it, leaves learning alone behind.