They who have been bred in the school of politics fail now and always to face the facts. Their measures are half measures and makeshifts merely. They put off the day of settlement, and meanwhile the debt accumulates.

To speak or do anything that shall concern mankind, one must speak and act as if well, or from that grain of health which he has left.

As for my own business, even that kind of surveying which I could do with most satisfaction my employers do not want. They would prefer that I should do my work coarsely and not too well, ay, not well enough. When I observe that there are different ways of surveying, my employer commonly asks which will give him the most land, not which is most correct.

Man is an animal who more than any other can adapt himself to all climates and circumstances.

A man is wise with the wisdom of his time only, and ignorant with its ignorance.

Men commonly couple with their idea of marriage a slight degree at least of sensuality; but every lover, the world over, believesin its inconceivable purity.

Shall a man not have his spring as well as the plants?