Must we always talk for victory, and never once for truth, for comfort, and joy?

In skating over thin ice our safety is in our speed.

To the poet, to the philosopher, to the saint, all things are friendly and sacred, all events profitable, all days holy, all men divine.

The State is a poor, good beast who means the best: it means friendly.

When fear enters the heart of a man at hearing the names of candidates and the reading of laws that are proposed, then is the State safe, but when these things are heard without regard, as above or below us, then is the Commonwealth sick or dead.

Pain, indolence, sterility, endless ennui have also their lesson for you, if you are great.

The question is whether [suicide] is the way out, or the way in.

God will have life to be real; we will be damned, but it shall be theatrical.

A sympathetic person is placed in the dilemma of a swimmer among drowning men, who all catch at him, and if he gives so much as a leg or a finger, they will drown him.

Sympathy is a supporting atmosphere, and in it we unfold easily and well.