Silence is the communing of a conscious soul with itself. If the soul attend for a moment to its own infinity, then and there is silence. If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Wherever a man separates from the multitude and goes his own way, there is a fork in the road, though the travelers along the highway see only a gap in the paling. Money is not required to buy one necessary of the soul.
Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion.
I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor. It is something to be to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful, but it is more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which we morally can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Sounds a little grandiose, I have to admit, but if you analyze it, it's living simply, in the purest form. I now seek to live, simply, live.