ur business should be first honest, and
second useful, are points in which honour and morality are concerned.

*****

There is only one wish realisable on the earth; only one thing that can
be perfectly attained: Death. And from a variety of circumstances we
have no one to tell us whether it be worth attaining.

A strange picture we make on our way to our chimaeras, ceaselessly
marching, grudging ourselves the time for rest; indefatigable,
adventurous pioneers. It is true that we shall never reach the goal; it
is even more than probable that there is no such place; and if we lived
for centuries and were endowed with the powers of a god, we should find
ourselves not much nearer what we wanted at the end. O toiling hands of
mortals! O unwearied feet, travelling ye know not whither! Soon, soon,
it seems to you,' you must come forth on some conspicuous hilltop, and
but a little way further, against the setting sun, descry the spires
of El Dorado. Little do ye know your own blessedness; for to travel
hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to
labour.

*****

A man who must separate himself from his neighbours' habits in order to
be happy, is in much the same case with one who requires to take opium
for the same purpose. What we want to see is one who can breast into the
world, do a man's work, and still preserve his first and pure enjoyment
of existence.

There is apt to be something unmanly, something almost dastardly, in
a life that does not move with dash and freedom, and that fears the
bracing contact of the world.

*****

You cannot run away from a weakness; you must some time fight it out or
perish; and if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?

*****

Life as a matter of fact, partakes largely of the nature of tragedy.
The gospel according to Whitman, even if it be not so logical, has
this advantage over the gospel according to Pangloss, that it does not
utterly disregard the existence of temporal evil. Whitman accepts the
fact of disease and wretchedness like an honest man; and instead of
trying to qualify it in the interest of his optimism, sets himself to
spur people up to be helpful.

*****

Indeed, I believe this is the lesson; if it is for fame that men do
brave actions, they are only silly fellows after all.

*****

To avoid an occasion for our virtues is a worse degree of failure than
to push forward pluckily and make a fall. It is lawful to pray God that