The nonchalance and dolce-far-niente air of nature and society hint at infinite periods in the progress of mankind.

What is human warfare but just this; an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party.

The earth I tread on is not a dead inert mass. It is a body, has a spirit; is organic and fluid to the influence of its spirit and to whatever particle of the spirit is in me.

Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right... Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.

The bad are frequently good enough to let you see how bad they are, but the good as frequently endeavor to get between you and themselves.

This life is not for complaint, but for satisfaction.

I have found that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another.