The chief effect of talk on any subject is to strengthen one's own opinions, and, in fact, one never knows exactly what he does believe until he is warmed into conviction by the heat of attack and defence.

If there was any petting to be done...he chose to do it. Often he would sit looking at me, and then, moved by a delicate affection, come and pull at my coat and sleeve until he could touch my face with his nose, and then go away contented.

The most popular persons are those who take the world as it is who find the least fault.

Nature is entirely indifferent to any reform. She perpetuates a fault as persistently as a virtue.

There was never a nation that became great until it came to the knowledge that it had nowhere in the world to go for help.

Isolation breeds conceit.

Public opinion is stronger than the legislature, and nearly as strong as the ten commandments.