As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?

What is understood by republican government in the United States is the slow and quiet action of society upon itself.

Consider any individual at any period of his life, and you will always find him preoccupied with fresh plans to increase his comfort. Do not talk to him about the interests and rights of the human race; that little private business of his for the moment absorbs all his thoughts, and he hopes that public disturbances can be put off to some other time.

America is a land of wonders, in which everything is in constant motion and every change seems an improvement.

Democratic institutions generally give men a lofty notion of their country and themselves.

The aspect of American society is animated, because men and things are always changing; but it is monotonous, because all the changes are alike.

Nature secretly avenges herself for the constraint imposed upon her by the laws of man.