Irving teaches me the lesson of cheerfulness, Hawthorne shows me the hatefulness of sin, Longfellow gives me the soft, tranquil music of hope. Lowell makes us feel that we must give ourselves to our fellow men. Whittier sings to me of divine Fatherhood and human brotherhood. Jesus Christ is back of these all. No man can lead a public career really worth leading, no man can act with rugged independence in serious crises, nor strike at great abuses, nor afford to make powerful and unscrupulous foes, if he is himself vulnerable in his private character.
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature. Its power is to survive the unforeseen vicissitude, to enlist great teachers, great friends. We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought. It don't take a genius to spot a goat in a flock of sheep.