James Russell Lowell

The surest plan to make a man is, think him so.

The mind can weave itself warmly in the cocoon of its own thoughts, and dwell a hermit anywhere.

A weed is no more than a flower in disguise, Which is seen through at once, if love give a man eyes.

Deep down, there is in the substance of the cosmos a primordial disposition, sui generis, for self-arrangement and self-involution.

A free life cannot acquire many possessions, because this is not easy to do without servility to mobs or monarchs.

It is because nations tend towards stupidity and baseness that mankind moves so slowly; it is because individuals have a capacity for better things that it moves at all.