“It is merely silence of the hand, not of the heart.”

Distinguishing an inability to write from any failure of affection · Letter to his parents, 27 February 1857

• Friendship
• Love

“The great progress of things takes place by the passage of the highest form of each thing into the thing above it.”

Imagining progress as the best in one form passing into a higher form · Unpublished notes, Poetry and Art

• Hope
• Time

“And a man of great moral courage can not only use his noblest qualities manfully when the positive voice of duty commands, but give them at all times their free and natural exercise.”

Describing moral courage as the habitual freedom to exercise one's best qualities · Letter, On Moral Courage, 1861

• Courage
• Truth