We cannot overstate our debt to the past, but the moment has the supreme claim. Emerson.
We cannot part with our friends. We cannot let our angels go. We do not see that they only go out that archangels may come in. We are idolaters of the old. We do not believe in the richness of the soul, in its proper eternity and omnipresence. Emerson.
We cannot pass our guardian angel's bound, / Resign'd or sullen, he will hear our sighs. Keble.
We cannot speak a loyal word and be meanly 15 silent; we cannot kill and not kill at the same moment; but a moment is room enough for the loyal and mean desire, for the outflash of a murderous thought, and the sharp backward stroke of repentance. George Eliot.
We cannot think too highly of our nature, nor too humbly of ourselves. Colton.
We conceive, I think, more nobly of the weak presence of Paul than of the fair and ruddy countenance of David. Ruskin.
We consecrate a great deal of nonsense, because it was allowed by great men. Emerson.
We could not endure solitude, were it not for the powerful companionship of hope, or of some unseen one. Jean Paul.
We crave a world unreal as the shell-heard 20 sea. E. L. Hamilton.
We cultivate literature on a little oatmeal. Sydney Smith.