The sermon which I write inquisitive of truth is good a year after, but that which is written because a sermon must be writ is musty the next day.

The vanishing, volatile froth of the Present which any shadow will alter, any thought blow away, any event annihilate, is every moment converted into the Adamantine Record of the Past.

We can see well into the past; we can guess shrewdly into the future; but that which is rolled up and muffled in impenetrable folds is today.

With the Past, as past, I have nothing to do; nor with the Future as future. I live now, and will verify all past history in my own moments.

If a man own land, the land owns him. Now let him leave home, if he dare.

Proportion is almost impossible to human beings. There is no one who does not exaggerate.

Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis.

The eye of prudence may never shut.

All the great speakers were bad speakers at first.

Crime and punishment grow out of one stem.