If ever I did a man any goodof course it was something exceptional and insignificant compared with the good or evil which I am constantly doing by being what I am.

It is not so important that many should be good as you, as that there be some absolute goodness somewhere; for that will leaven the whole lump.

The heart is forever inexperienced.

For if we take the ages into our account, may there not be a civilization going on among brutes as well as men?

Any man knows when he is justified, and all the wits in the world cannot enlighten him on that point. The murderer always knows that he is justly punished; but when a government takes the life of a man without the consent of his conscience, it is an audacious government, and is taking a step towards its own dissolution.

Whose are the truly labored sentences? From the weak and flimsy periods of the politician and literary man, we are glad to turn even to the description of work, the simple record of the month's labor in the farmer's almanac, to restore our tone and spirits.

The oldest, wisest politician grows not more human so, but is merely a gray wharf rat at last.