More from The Island of the Day Before
- Absence is to love as wind to fire; it extinguishes the little flame, it fans the big.
- I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren't trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.
- Accept loss forever
- A change in the weather is sufficient to recreate the world and ourselves.
- A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.
- A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us. Essays, "Character," 1844
Last reviewed 2026-07-06