We do not believe in immortality because we can't prove it, but we try to prove it because we cannot help believing it.

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

There are always principles to be depended upon in this matter of taxation ... Amidst the inconsistent, the bewildering representations offered, a certain number must be in accordance with true principles.

If the national mind of America be judged of by its legislation, it is of a very high order ... If the American nation be judged of by its literature, it may be pronounced to have no mind at all.

It is hard to tell which is worse; the wide diffusion of things that are not true, or the suppression of things that are true.

Readers are plentiful; thinkers are rare.

A soul occupied with great ideas performs small duties.