“The hat is the pride of man; for he who cannot keep his hat on before kings and emperors is no free man.”

Think with awe on the slow and quiet power of time.

The dignity of man into your hands is given; Oh, keep it well, with you it sinks or lifts itself to heaven.

Grace is the beauty of form under the influence of freedom.

Spring flies, and with it all the train it leads; and flowers, in fading, leave us but their seeds.

Ah, to that far distant strand Bridge there was not to convey, Not a bark was near at hand, Yet true love soon found the way.

Every great mind seeks to labor for eternity. All men are captivated by immediate advantages; great minds alone are excited by the prospect of distant good.

Love guides the stars towards each other, the world plan endures only through love.

Whatever lives, lives to die in sorrow. We engage our hearts, and grasp after the things of this world, only to undergo the pang of losing them.

Many a crown shines spotless now that yet was deeply sullied in the winning.

The key to education is the experience of beauty.

In the case of a creative mind, it seems to me, the intellect has withdrawn its watchers from the gates, and the ideas rush in pell-mell and only then does it review and inspect the multitudes.

Speech is always bolder than action.

Uncommon men require no common trust; give him but scope and he will set the bounds.

A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished.

Joy is the mainspring in the whole Of endless Nature’s calm rotation. Joy moves the dazzling wheels that roll In the great Time-piece of Creation.

The world’s history is the world’s judgment.

No emperor has the power to dictate to the heart.

I have seen three emperors in their nakedness, and the sight was not inspiring.

I had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world.

Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.