I take it for granted, when I am invited to lecture anywhere,--for I have had a little experience in that business,--that there isa desire to hear what I think on some subject, though I may be the greatest fool in the country,--and not that I should say pleasant things merely, or such as an audience will assent to; and I resolve, accordingly, that I will give them a strong dose of myself. They have sent for me, and engaged to pay for me, and I am determined that they shall have me, though I bore them beyond all precedent.

The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man's abode.

Cultivate the habit of early rising. It is unwise to keep the head long on a level with the feet.

The heroes and discoverers have found true more than was previously believed, only when they were expecting and dreaming of something more than their contemporaries dreamed of, or even themselves discovered, that is, when they were in a frame of mind fitted to behold the truth. Referred to the world's standard, they are always insane. Even savages have indirectly surmised as much.

Nature is an admirable schoolmistress.

Some things are really necessaries of life in some circles, which in others are luxuries merely and in others still are entirely unknown.

Commerce is really as interesting as nature.