"Art is the path of the creator to his work"
"What a little of all we know is said"
"Man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stand tiptoe to foresee the future. He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time."
"For all that we say is the far off remembering of the intuition."
"When good is near you, when you have life in yourself, it is not by any known or accustomed way... it shall exclude examples and experience."
"Life only avails, not the having lived."
"We must go alone. I like the silent church before the service begins, better than the preaching...so let us always sit."
"But your isolation must not be mechanical, but spiritual. That is, must be elevation. At times the whole world seems to be in conspiracy to importune you with emphatic trifles. Friend, client, child, sickness, fear, want, charity, all knock at once at thy closed door and say, - 'Come out unto us.' But keep thy state; come not into their confusion."
"And truly it demands something godlike in him who has cast off the common motives of humanity, and has ventured to trust himself for taskmaster. High be his heart, faithful his will, clear his sight, that he may in good earnest be doctrine, society, law to himself, that a simple purpose may be to him as strong as iron necessity is to others."
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"If any man consider the present aspects of what is called by distinction society, he will see the need of these ethics. The sinew and heart of man seem to be drawn out, and we are become timorous desponding whimperers. We are afraid of truth, afraid of fortunes, afraid of death, afraid of each other. Our age yields no great and perfect persons. We want men and women who shall renovate life and our social state, but we see that most natures are insolvent, cannot satisfy their own wants, have an ambition out of all proportion to their practical forces and do lean and beg day and night continually... We shun the battle of fate, where strength is born."
"He does not postpone life, but lives already."
"With the exercise of self-trust, new powers shall appear; that a man is the word made flesh, born to shed healing to the nations, that he should be ashamed of our compassion, and that the moment he acts from himself, tossing the laws, the books, idolatries, and customs out of the window, we pity him no more but thank and revere him... and that teacher shall restore the life of man to splendor, and make his name dear to all History."
"Another sort of false prayers are our regrets. Discontent is the want of self-reliance: it is infirmity of will. Regret calamities, if you can hereby help the sufferer; if not, attend your own work... The secret of fortune is joy in our hands. Welcome evermore to gods and men is the self-helping man. For him all doors are flung wide: him all tongues greet, all honors crown, all eyes follow with desire. Our love goes out to him and embraces him, because he did not need it."
"Every new mind is a new classification. If it prove a mind of uncommon activity and power, a Locke, a Lavoisier, a Hutton, a Bentham, a Fourier, it imposes its classification in other men, and lo! a new system."
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"The pupil takes the same delight in suboordinating every thing to the new terminology, as a girl who has just learned botany in seeing a new earth and new seasons thereby."
"Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation."
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"every great man is unique."
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"Do that which is assigned to you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much. There is at this moment for you an utterance brave and grand as that of the colossal chisel of Phidias, or trowel of the Egyptians, or of the pen of Moses, or Dante, but different from all of these."
I only read about 20 pages, but I tried and absorb as much as I could. I'm excited to read more!
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