- There comes a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion

- To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius.

and most poignant of all :

- Your isolation must not be mechanical, but spiritual, that is.

I remember the exact moment of my life when I read "Self reliance for the first time, I'll never forget that moment.