The difference between men is in their principle of association. Some men classify objects by color and size and other accidents of appearance; others by intrinsic likeness, or by the relation of cause and effect. The progress of the intellect is to the clearer vision of causes, which neglects surface differences. To the poet, to the philosopher, to the saint, all things are friendly and sacred, all events profitable, all days holy, all men divine. For the eye is fastened on the life, and slights the circumstance. Every chemical substance, every plant, every animal in its growth, teaches the unity of cause, the variety of appearance.

All that Shakespeare says of the king, yonder slip of a boy that reads in the corner feels to be true of himself.

When the voice of a prophet out of the deeps of antiquity merely echoes to him a sentiment of his infancy, a prayer of his youth, he then pierces to the truth …

There is one mind common to all individual men. Every man is an inlet to the same and to all of the same. He that is once admitted to the right of reason is ma…

'Making itself intelligible is suicide for philosophy' (from Contributions to Philosophy from Enowning, full quote:

Theories are lies that help us to see the truth.

The right understanding of any matter and a misunderstanding of the same matter do not wholly exclude each other.