“A difference of taste in jokes, is a great strain on the affections.”

“We have a great deal more kindness than is ever spoken. (Despite) all the selfishness that chills like east winds the world, the whole human family is bathed with an element of love like a fine ether... The effect of the indulgence of this human affection is a certain cordial exhilaration.”

“I am the owner of the sphere,Of the seven stars and the solar year,of Caesar's hand, and Plato's brain,Of Lord Christ's heart, and Shakespeare's strain.”

“My life is not an apology, but a life. It is for itself and not for a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady.”

“Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art.”

“So shall we come to look at the world with new eyes. It shall answer the endless inquiry of the intellect, — What is truth? and of the affections, — What is good? by yielding itself passive to the educated Will. ... Build, therefore, your own world. As fast as you conform your life to the pure idea in your mind, that will unfold its great proportions. A correspondent revolution in things will attend the influx of the spirit.”

“Truth is handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it--else it is none.”