“Nothing is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.”

Finding a sharp form of exhilaration in surviving danger · Travel writing, The Amateur Emigrant

• Courage
• Danger
• Experience

“To be wholly devoted to some intellectual exercise is to have succeeded in life.”

Defining fulfilment through sustained intellectual engagement · Essay, A College Magazine

• Learning
• Purpose
• Work

“To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.”

Presenting self-realisation as life’s central purpose · Essay, Familiar Studies of Men and Books

• Growth
• Life
• Purpose

“Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life.”

Affirming the value of direct experience alongside reading · Essay, A Gossip on a Novel of Dumas

• Books
• Experience
• Life

“There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.”

Treating happiness as a serious responsibility rather than a trivial pleasure · Essay, An Apology for Idlers

• Duty
• Happiness
• Joy