The health of the people is really the foundation upon which all their happiness and all their powers as a state depend.

Books are the curse of the human race.

I think that an author who speaks about his own books is almost as bad as a mother who talks about her own children.

When men are pure, laws are useless; when men are corrupt, laws are broken.

How very seldom do you encounter in the world a man of great abilities, acquirements, experience, who will unmask his mind, unbutton his brains, and pour forth in careless and picturesque phrase all the results of his studies and observation; his knowledge of men, books, and nature. On the contrary, if a man has by any chance an original idea, he hoards it as if it were old gold; and rather avoids the subject with which he is most conversant, from fear that you may appropriate his best thoughts.

Demagogues and agitators are very unpleasant, they are incidental to a free and constitutional country, and you must put up with these inconveniences or do without many important advantages.

The enterprise of America precedes that of Europe, as the industry of England precedes that of the rest of Europe.