Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resigns his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward.

When a noble deed is done, who is likely to appreciate it? They who are noble themselves.

If within the sophisticated man there is not an unsophisticated one, then he is but one of the devil's angels.

A cold and searching wind drives away all contagion, and nothing can withstand it but what has a virtue in it, and accordingly, whatever we meet with in cold and bleak places, as the tops of mountains, we respect for a sort of sturdy innocence, a Puritan toughness. All things beside seem to be called in for shelter, and what stays out must be part of the original frame of the universe, and of such valor as God himself.

The frontiers are not east or west, north or south, but wherever a man fronts a fact.

I do not believe there are eight hundred human beings on the globe.

The next time the novelist rings the bell I will not stir though the meeting-house burn down.