What is there in 'Paradise Lost' to elevate and astonish like Herschel or Somerville? - Ralph Waldo Emerson

People destined to meet will do so, apparently by chance, at precisely the right moment.

My life is not an apology, but a life. It is for itself and not for a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady.

There may be two or three or four steps, according to the genius of each, but for every seeing soul there are two absorbing facts, — I and the abyss.