“The ancestor of every action is a thought.”

“Every book is a quotation; and every house is a quotation out of all forests, and mines, and stone quarries; and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors. ”

“Thought is the seed of action; but action is as much its second form as thought is its first.”

“The world -- this shadow of the soul, or other me, lies wide around. Its attractions are the keys which unlock my thoughts and make me acquainted with myself. I run eagerly into this resounding tumult...So much only of life as I know by experience...The true scholar grudges every opportunity of action past by, as a loss of power.”

“Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.”

“Every revolution was first a thought in one man's mind, and when the same thought occurs to another man, it is the key to that era.”

“In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts.”