I romanced internally about early death till it was too late to die early.

A Queen, or a Prime Minister's secretary may be shot at in London, as we know; and probably there is no person eminent in literature or otherwise who has not been the object of some infirm brain or another. But in America the evil is sadly common.

It is not quite true that there are no good letters written in America: among my own circle of correspondents there, there are ladies and gentlemen whose letters would stand a comparison with any for frankness, grace, and epistolary beauty of every kind. But I am not aware of any medium between this excellence and the boarding-school insignificance which characterizes the rest.

Leisure, some degree of it, is necessary to the health of every man's spirit.

Fidelity to conscience is inconsistent with retiring modesty. If it be so, let the modesty succumb. It can be only a false modesty which can be thus endangered.

Keep innocency, and take heed unto the thing that is right, for that shall bring a man peace at the last.

The clergy complain of the enormous spread of bold books, from the infidel tract to the latest handling of the miracle question.