Despair and postponement are cowardice and defeat. Men were born to succeed, not to fail.

Speech is for the convenience of those who are hard of hearing; but there are many fine things which we cannot say if we have to shout.

A bore is someone who takes away my solitude and doesn't give me companionship in return.

The imagination never forgets; it is a re-membering. It is not foundationless, but most reasonable, and it alone uses all the knowledge of the intellect.

It is not for a man to put himself in such an attitude to society, but to maintain himself in whatever attitude he find himself through obedience to the laws of his being, which will never be one of opposition to a just government, if he should chance to meet with such.

I foresee the time when the painter will paint that scene, no longer going to Rome for a subject; the poet will sing it; the historian record it; and, with the Landing of the Pilgrims and the Declaration of Independence, it will be the ornament of some future national gallery, when at least the present form of slavery shall be no more here. We shall then be at liberty to weep for Captain Brown. Then, and not till then, we will take our revenge.

We cannot but pity the boy who has never fired a gun; he is no more humane, while his education has been sadly neglected.