If a man really knew himself he would utterly despise the ignorant notions others might form on a subject in which he had such matchless opportunities for observation.

Eloquence is a republican art, as conversation is an aristocratic one.

It would repel me less to be a hangman than a soldier, because the one is obliged to put to death only criminals sentenced by the law, but the other kills honest men who like himself bathe in innocent blood at the bidding of some superior.

Prayer is not a substitute for work; it is an effort to work further and be efficient beyond the range of one's powers.

The aim of life is some way of living, as flexible and gentle as human nature; so that ambition may stoop to kindness, and philosophy to condor and humor. Neither prosperity nor empire nor heaven can be worth winning at the price of a virulent temper, bloody hands, an anguished spirit, and a vain hatred of the rest of the world.

A fanatical imagination cannot regard God as just unless he is represented as infinitely cruel.

Our dignity is not in what we do, but what we understand.