Our belief in education is unbounded, our reverence for it is unfaltering, our loyalty to it is unshaken by reverses. Our passionate desire, not so much to acquire it as to bestow it, is the most animated of American traits.

The choice of a topic which will bear analysis and support enthusiasm, is essential to the enjoyment of conversation.

If everybody floated with the tide of talk, placidity would soon end in stagnation. It is the strong backward stroke which stirs the ripples, and gives animation and variety.

No man pursues what he has at hand. No man recognizes the need of pursuit until that which he desires has escaped him.

Edged tools are dangerous things to handle, and not infrequently do much hurt.

If history in the making be a fluid thing, it swiftly crystallizes.

The man who never tells an unpalatable truth 'at the wrong time' (the right time has yet to be discovered) is the man whose success in life is fairly well assured.