“I stood among them, but not of them: in a shroud of thoughts which were not their thoughts.”

We have fools in all sects, and impostors in most; why should I believe mysteries no one can understand, because written by men who chose to mistake madness for inspiration and style themselves Evangelicals?

A woman who gives any advantage to a man may expect a lover – but will sooner or later find a tyrant.

Reason is so unreasonable, that few people can say they are in possession of it.

The lapse of ages changes all things – time, language, the earth, the bounds of the sea, the stars of the sky, and every thing about, around, and underneath man, except man himself.

Eternity forbids thee to forget.

That music in itself, whose sounds are song, The poetry of speech.

Society is now one polished horde, formed of two mighty tries, the Bores and Bored.

We are all the fools of time and terror: Days Steal on us and steal from us; yet we live, Loathing our life, and dreading still to die.

The dome of thought, the palace of the soul.

Where there is mystery, it is generally suspected there must also be evil.

America is a model of force and freedom and moderation – with all the coarseness and rudeness of its people.

I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs; A palace and a prison on each hand;

The busy have no time for tears.

Socrates said, our only knowledge was “To know that nothing could be known;” a pleasant Science enough, which levels to an ass Each Man of Wisdom, future, past, or present.

Who falls from all he knows of bliss, Cares little into what abyss.

Hatred is the madness of the heart.

There’s a kinship among men who have sat by a dying fire and measured the worth of their life by it.

You’ve been telling us about how to secure peace, but come on, now, General-just among us Rotarians and Rotary Anns-‘fess up!

Among other things, I saw in the body of one of these animalcules a bright and round corpuscle, placed near the head, and in which a very wonderful swift motion was to be seen, consisting of an alternate extension and contraction.

Frequently the enemy entices Christians to harbor an unforgiving spirit – a very common symptom indeed among God’s children. Such bitterness and fault-finding and enmity inflict a severe blow upon spiritual life.

I’ve had a good life, and was born to and among people I’ve admired and loved.

But the self-controlled man, moving among objects, with his senses under restraint, and free from both attraction and repulsion, attains peace.

Competing is intense among humans, and within a group, selfish individuals always win. But in contests between groups, groups of altruists always beat groups of selfish individuals.

Every major religion today is a winner in the Darwinian struggle waged among cultures, and none ever flourished by tolerating its rivals.