The life of a good man will hardly improve us more than the life of a freebooter, for the inevitable laws appear as plainly in theinfringement as in the observance, and our lives are sustained by a nearly equal expense of virtue of some kind. The decaying tree, while yet it lives, demands sun, wind, and rain no less than the green one. It secretes sap and performs the functions of health. If we choose, we may study the alburnum only. The gnarled stump has as tender a bud as the sapling.

For many years I was a self-appointed inspector of snowstorms and rainstorms and did my duty faithfully, though I never received payment for it.

As in geology, so in social institutions, we may discover the causes of all past changes in the present invariable order of society.

Christ is the prince of Reformers and Radicals.

A Friend is one who incessantly pays us the compliment of expecting from us all the virtues, and who can appreciate them in us.

In Adam's fall We sinned all. In the new Adam's rise, We shall all reach the skies.

There is all the poetry in the world in a name. It is a poem which the mass of men hear and read. What is poetry in the common sense, but a hearing of such jingling names? I want nothing better than a good word. The name of a thing may easily be more than the thing itself to me.