“For axioms in philosophy are not axioms until they are proved upon our pulses.”

“The open sky sits upon our senses like a sapphire crown - the Air is our robe of state - the Earth is our throne, and the Sea a mighty minstrel playing before it.”

“The Public - a thing I cannot help looking upon as an enemy, and which I cannot address without feelings of hostility.”

“Nothing ever becomes real till experienced – even a proverb is no proverb until your life has illustrated it”

“We read fine things but never feel them to the full until we have gone the same steps as the author.”

“Then felt I like like some watcher of the skiesWhen a new planet swims into his ken;Like stout Cortes when with eagle eyesHe star'd at the Pacific-and all his menLook'd at each other with a wild surmiseSilent upon a peak in Darien”

“When by my solitary hearth I sit,When no fair dreams before my “mind’s eye” flit,And the bare heath of life presents no bloom;Sweet Hope, ethereal balm upon me shed,And wave thy silver pinions o’er my head.”