“Books are for nothing but to inspire”

“Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst...They are for nothing but to inspire.”

“What's a book? Everything or nothing. The eye that sees it all.”

“The most wonderful inspirations die with their subject, if he has no hand to paint them to the senses.”

“In art the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can inspire.”

“Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.”

“Then [good manners] must be inspired by the good heart. There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us.”