American society is a sort of flat, fresh-water pond which absorbs silently, without reaction, anything which is thrown into it.

I hate photographs abstractly, because they have given me more ideas perversely and immovably wrong, than I ever should get by imagination.

No man, however strong, can serve ten years as schoolmaster, priest, or Senator, and remain fit for anything else.

His brothers were the type; he was the variation.

As a historian, he felt it his duty to respect everything that had ever been respected, except for the occasional statesman.

The mind resorts to reason for want of training.

Teachers affect eternity; no one can tell where their influence stops.