The way in which men cling to old institutions after the life has departed out of them, and out of themselves, reminds me of those monkeys which cling by their tails - aye, whose tails contract about the limbs, even the dead limbs, of the forest, and they hang suspended beyond the hunter's reach long after they are dead. It is of no use to argue with such men. They have not an apprehensive intellect, but merely, as it were a prehensile tail.

There have been some nations who could do nothing but construct tombs, and these are the only traces which they have left. They are the heathen.

The humblest observer who goes to the mines sees and says that gold-digging is of the character of a lottery; the gold thus obtained is not the same thing with the wages of honest toil. But, practically, he forgets what he has seen, for he has seen only the fact, not the principle, and goes into trade there, that is, buys a ticket in what commonly proves another lottery, where the fact is not so obvious.

Humility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights.

Methinks that the moment my legs began to move, my thoughts began to flow.

A goal is a dream taken seriously.

He listens equally to the prayers of the believer and the unbeliever.