Boston was a moral and intellectual nursery, always busy applying first principles to trifles.

Nothing is so irrevocable as mind.

There is no dunce like a mature dunce.

To be an American is of itself almost a moral condition, an education, and a career.

You cannot prove realism to a complete sceptic or idealist; but you can show an honest man that he is not a complete sceptic or idealist, but a realist at heart. So long as he is alive his sincere philosophy must fulfil the assumptions of his life and not destroy him.

Men almost universally have acknowledged providence, but that fact has had no force to destroy natural aversions and fears in the presence of events.

It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas.