“The point of imperfection which we occupy -- is it on the way up or down?”

“Life lies behind us as the quarry from whence we get tiles and copestones for the masonry of to-day. This is the way to learn grammar. Colleges and books only copy the language which the field and the work-yard made.”

“That which we are, we shall teach, not voluntarily, but involuntarily. Thoughts come into our minds by avenues which we never left open, and thoughts go out of our minds through avenues which we never voluntarily opened.”

“The world of any moment is the merest appearance. Some great decorum, some fetish of government, some ephemeral trade, or war, or man, is cried up by half mankind and cried down by the other half, as if it all depended on this particular up or down.”

“Undoubtedly we have no questions to ask which are unanswerable.”

“That which we call sin in others is experiment for us.”

“We write from aspiration and antagonism, as well as from experience. We paint those qualities which we do not posses.”