A capacity, and taste, for reading, gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. It is the key, or one of the keys, to the already solved problems. And not only so. It gives a relish, and facility, for successfully pursuing the [yet] unsolved ones.

What I want is to get done what the people desire to have done, and the question for me is how to find that out exactly.

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.

It will not do to investigate the subject of religion too closely, as it is apt to lead to infidelity.

I was losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known.

Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time.

If you trust, you will be disappointed occasionally, but if you mistrust, you will be miserable all the time.