In civilization, as in a southern latitude, man degenerates at length, and yields to the incursion of more northern tribes.

Nothing but great antiquity can make graveyards interesting to me. I have no friends there.

It is easier to sail many thousand miles through cold and storm and cannibals, ina government ship, with five hundred men and boys to assist one, than it is to explore the private sea, the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean of one's being alone.

Where shall we look for standard English, but to the words of a standard man?

Bread may not always nourish us; but it always does us good, it even takes stiffness out of our joints, and makes us supple and buoyant, when we knew not what ailed us, to recognize any generosity in man or Nature, to share any unmixed and heroic joy.

In the unbending of the arm to do the deed there is experience worth all the maxims in the world.

There is no ill which may not be dissipated, like the dark, if you let in a stronger light upon it.