"Soft-heartedness, in times like these, Shows sof'ness in the upper story."

The Biglow Papers. Second Series. No. vii.

"Earth's biggest country 's gut her soul, An' risen up earth's greatest nation."

The Biglow Papers. Second Series. No. vii.

"Under the yaller pines I house, When sunshine makes 'em all sweet-scented, An' hear among their furry boughs The baskin' west-wind purr contented."

The Biglow Papers. Second Series. No. x.

"Wut 's words to them whose faith an' truth On war's red techstone rang true metal; Who ventered life an' love an' youth For the gret prize o' death in battle?"

The Biglow Papers. Second Series. No. x.

"From lower to the higher next, Not to the top, is Nature's text; And embryo Good, to reach full stature, Absorbs the Evil in its nature."

Festina Lente. Moral.

"Though old the thought and oft exprest, 'T is his at last who says it best."

For an Autograph.

"Nature, they say, doth dote, And cannot make a man Save on some worn-out plan, Repeating us by rote."

Ode at the Harvard Commemoration, July 21, 1865.

"Here was a type of the true elder race, And one of Plutarch's men talked with us face to face."

Ode at the Harvard Commemoration, July 21, 1865.

"Safe in the hallowed quiets of the past."

The Cathedral.

"The one thing finished in this hasty world."

The Cathedral.

"These pearls of thought in Persian gulfs were bred, Each softly lucent as a rounded moon; The diver Omar plucked them from their bed, Fitzgerald strung them on an English thread."

In a copy of Omar Khayyám.

"The clear, sweet singer with the crown of snow Not whiter than the thoughts that housed below."

To George William Curtis.

"But life is sweet, though all that makes it sweet Lessen like sound of friends' departing feet; And Death is beautiful as feet of friend Coming with welcome at our journey's end. For me Fate gave, whate'er she else denied, A nature sloping to the southern side; I thank her for it, though when clouds arise Such natures double-darken gloomy skies."

To George William Curtis.

"In life's small things be resolute and great To keep thy muscle trained: know'st thou when Fate Thy measure takes, or when she 'll say to thee, "I find thee worthy; do this deed for me"?"

Epigram.

"In vain we call old notions fudge, And bend our conscience to our dealing; The Ten Commandments will not budge, And stealing will continue stealing."

Motto of the American Copyright League (written Nov. 20, 1885).

"Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character."

Among my Books. First Series. Dryden.

"A wise scepticism is the first attribute of a good critic."

Among my Books. First Series. Shakespeare Once More.

"One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning."

Among my Books. First Series. Shakespeare Once More.

"Aspiration sees only one side of every question; possession many."

Among my Books. First Series. New England Two Centuries ago.

"Truly there is a tide in the affairs of men; but there is no gulf-stream setting forever in one direction."

Among my Books. First Series. New England Two Centuries ago.

"There is no better ballast for keeping the mind steady on its keel, and saving it from all risk of crankiness, than business."

Among my Books. First Series. New England Two Centuries ago.

"Puritanism, believing itself quick with the seed of religious liberty, laid, without knowing it, the egg of democracy."

Among my Books. First Series. New England Two Centuries ago.

"It was in making education not only common to all, but in some sense compulsory on all, that the destiny of the free republics of America was practically settled."

Among my Books. First Series. New England Two Centuries ago.

"Talent is that which is in a man's power; genius is that in whose power a man is."

Among my Books. First Series. Rousseau and the Sentimentalists.

"There is no work of genius which has not been the delight of mankind, no word of genius to which the human heart and soul have not sooner or later responded."

Among my Books. First Series. Rousseau and the Sentimentalists.

"Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action."

Among my Books. First Series. Rousseau and the Sentimentalists.

"Sentiment is intellectualized emotion,--emotion precipitated, as it were, in pretty crystals by the fancy."

Among my Books. First Series. Rousseau and the Sentimentalists.

"No man can produce great things who is not thoroughly sincere in dealing with himself."

Among my Books. First Series. Rousseau and the Sentimentalists.

"In all literary history there is no such figure as Dante, no such homogeneousness of life and works, such loyalty to ideas, such sublime irrecognition of the unessential."

Among my Books. Second Series. Dante.

"Whoever can endure unmixed delight, whoever can tolerate music and painting and poetry all in one, whoever wishes to be rid of thought and to let the busy anvils of the brain be silent for a time, let him read in the "Faery Queen.""

Among my Books. Second Series. Spenser.

"The only faith that wears well and holds its color in all weathers, is that which is woven of conviction and set with the sharp mordant of experience."

My Study Windows. Abraham Lincoln, 1864.

"It is by presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of a man is tested."

My Study Windows. Abraham Lincoln, 1864.

"What a sense of security in an old book which Time has criticised for us!"

Library of Old Authors.

"There is no good in arguing with the inevitable. The only argument available with an east wind is to put on your overcoat."

Democracy and Addresses.

"Let us be of good cheer, however, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come."

Democracy and Addresses.

"The soil out of which such men as he are made is good to be born on, good to live on, good to die for and to be buried in."

Garfield.

"A great man is made up of qualities that meet or make great occasions."

Garfield.

"It ["The Ancient Mariner"] is marvellous in its mastery over that delightfully fortuitous inconsequence that is the adamantine logic of dreamland."

Coleridge.

"He gives us the very quintessence of perception,--the clearly crystalized precipitation of all that is most precious in the ferment of impression after the impertinent and obtrusive particulars have evaporated from the memory."

Coleridge.

"If I were asked what book is better than a cheap book, I should answer that there is one book better than a cheap book,--and that is a book honestly come by."

Before the U. S. Senate Committee on Patents, Jan. 29, 1886.

"O Mary, go and call the cattle home, And call the cattle home, And call the cattle home, Across the sands o' Dee!"

The Sands of Dee.

"Men must work, and women must weep."

The Three Fishers.

"Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever; Do noble things, not dream them, all day long: And so make life, death, and that vast forever One grand sweet song."

A Farewell.

"The world goes up and the world goes down, And the sunshine follows the rain; And yesterday's sneer and yesterday's frown Can never come over again."

Dolcino to Margaret.

"No other terms than unconditional and immediate surrender. I propose to move immediately upon your works."

To Gen. S. B. Buckner, Fort Donelson, Feb. 16, 1862.

"I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer."

Despatch to Washington. Before Spottsylvania Court House, May 11, 1864.

"Let us have peace."

Accepting a Nomination for the Presidency, May 29, 1868.

"I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effectual as their strict construction."

From the Inaugural Address, March 4, 1869.

"Let no guilty man escape, if it can be avoided. No personal considerations should stand in the way of performing a duty."

Indorsement of a Letter relating to the Whiskey Ring, July 29, 1875.

"Others abide our question. Thou art free. We ask and ask. Thou smilest and art still, Out-topping knowledge."

Shakespeare.