Chance does nothing that has not been prepared beforehand.

The prejudice of the race appears stronger in the States that have abolished slaves than in the States where slavery still exists. White carpenters, white bricklayers, and white painters will not work side by side with the blacks in the North but do it in almost every Southern State.

Of all nations, those submit to civilization with the most difficulty which habitually live by the chase.

Laws are always unstable unless they are founded on the manners of a nation; and manners are the only durable and resisting power in a people.

The most durable monument of human labor is that which recalls the wretchedness and nothingness of man.

Among the droves of men with political ambitions in the United States, I found very few with that virile candor, that manly independence of thought, that often distinguished Americans in earlier times and that is invariably the preeminent trait of great characters wherever it exists.

In America the majority raises formidable barriers around the liberty of opinion; within these barriers an author may write what he pleases, but woe to him if he goes beyond them.