“The great Pioneer Missionaries all had 'inverted homesickness' this passion to call that country their home which was most in need of the Gospel. In this passion all other passions died; before this vision all other visions faded; this call drowned all other voices. They were the pioneers of the Kingdom, the forelopers of God, eager to cross the border-marches and discover new lands or win new-empires.”

“The pioneers and missionaries of religion have been the real cause of more trouble and war than all other classes of mankind.”

“And yet it fills me with wonder, that, in almost all countries, the most ancient poets are considered as the best: whether it be that every other kind of knowledge is an acquisition gradually attained, and poetry is a gift conferred at once; or that the first poetry of every nation surprised them as a novelty, and retained the credit by consent which it received by accident at first; or whether, as the province of poetry is to describe Nature and Passion, which are always the same, the first writers took possession of the most striking objects for description, and the most probable occurrences for fiction, and left nothing to those that followed them, but transcription of the same events, and new combinations of the same images. Whatever be the reason, it is commonly observed that the early writers are in possession of nature, and their followers of art: that the first excel in strength and innovation, and the latter in elegance and refinement.”

“Sexual pleasure is, I agree, a passion to which all others are subordinate but in which they all unite.”

“There are many qualities called for to conquer – to try to tame – a wild land such as this. A weak man or woman could never survive it. This is a task which requires much strength, passion, and determination – but, most of all, a dream that never dies.”

“Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.”

“When one great passion seizes possession of the soul all other feelings are crowded out.”